Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Shades of Honor
by Repenexus
Summary: Glacia, the Eevee Princess of Eon Kingdom, is in a bit of a bind. After a badly worded order to a godlike entity, she is thrown two millennia into the future and has to work with an amnesiac Litwick and others to find a way back to the past, solve the mysteries behind the Inversion Phenomenon, topple a conspiracy, and restore herself to her royal glory. AU Explorers Continuation.
1. 1 - A Dream to Remember

"Again"

I pant, trying to catch my breath.

"Again"

"Wait.." *huff* "...I'm... really tired"

"Again"

Irritated by Dad's impatience, I throw him a scathing look. He ignores it and continues waiting.

"Again"

I sigh and begin to form another practice Shadow Ball. We've been working on this move for a long time. Our old traditions said that the heir (or heiress) to the Eon Kingdom (me) had to be able to use Shadow Ball, so I have to learn it.

My wonderful old Dad said that it was about time that I should be learning it and that we would not "sully the great traditions of our ancestors".

I plant my paws, take a deep breath, and begin collecting the ghostly energy again.

Indigo particles begin to go near my mouth. They slowly start to coalesce and merge, creating a larger and larger ball. Slowly but surely a Shadow Ball begins to form.

Now for the hard part.

I take aim at the practice dummy, and fire.

It flies through the air and connects.

Pieces of the wooden Beedrill begin to fly everywhere, littering the floor with shards. All that's left of the Beedrill is a hunk of misshapen wood only vaguely representing a Pokemon.

I stare at the shattered dummy in shock.

'I ... did this ...'

It's pulverized. Completely and utterly pulverized.

Dad sighed. "Incomplete"

Wait ... What?

My dad faced me with a strange look in his eye. "The Shadow Ball was made incorrectly. Look at how I do it"

He turns to one of the training room's wall. Taking a deep breath, I see him gather more indigo particles near his mouth. Soon enough, he had gathered his own Shadow Ball. Then he fired it.

The Shadow Ball travels through the air as fast as a lightning bolt and comes into contact with the wall. Well, at least I thought it did. As soon as it went near the wall the ball disappears. The wall briefly flashes purple, then slowly goes back to the stone cold gray it usually is.

He turned back to me. "That," he says with emphasis "is how you do a Shadow Ball. They don't explode."

I open my mouth to retort but before I could he continues. "You know, Glacia, I expect more of you. You have been at it for a week now. The Shadow Ball is one of the moves that come easily to the Eevee line and is one of the most important moves you'll ever learn. You usually do better than this."

I opened my mouth again, but before I get anything in edgewise, Uncle Mentali appears at the door to the training room.

I hold my tongue. Now of all times? Why must he come when I want to have a private moment with Dad.

My dad turns to his brother. "What is it, Mentali"

"Leafia," Mentali greets him "Lord Star requires your attention in the conference room. He has not told me anything, but from the tone of his voice, it seemed very urgent.

Dad sighs, then turns back to me. "We'll work on it more tomorrow. For now, go to sleep".

"But dad, I want to cont-"

"Go. To. Sleep" he orders.

His tone leaves no room for argument. I can tell he isn't willing to budge.

My face falls completely. I want to master Shadow Ball - I don't like to battle all that much, but in all honesty, Dad's Shadow Ball looks amazing. The way it just sunk into the wall, like a water droplet being absorbed into another droplet.

"Dad, may I please just practice for a little bit longer," I beg. For once, I actually want to master a move.

"No, you have to practice with me in the room, and I have to go right now." He turns once again to the door "I wish I could stay longer, but my duties call, and you need to go to bed. We'll practice tomorrow, again." With a swish of his tail, he was gone.

I pout, then leave through the other door. What Dad wanted, Dad got. So that was the end of training for today. I had finally made some sort of progress. I mean, it lasted until it hit the target, right? That's something. It always just fizzled out before it came anywhere near close to the target. Contact is the first step, right?

I climb up the path of stairs that led to the residential tower in the castle. When I reach the top I went to the hallway that would lead to my chamber. Fortunately, the Houndours have already lit the way for me. Nice to see they're doing they're doing their job adequately. Dad had to fire the previous torch-lighter for his inability to reach the chandelier in the dining room.

As I reach my door, I hear a strange voice. Curious, I decided to wait and listen.

" ... her. Lord Black wishes that they be with Cresselia tonight. You can wait a day for feeding". There was a pause, and then, "Good luck".

There was a clang, followed by a series of metallic footsteps.

'What was that about' I wonder as I reach my door. 'Who was that?

I enter my room. It was clear Sharon was busy cleaning my room while I was training with Dad downstairs, with everything as clean as a Skarmory's feather.

My Musharna handmaid turned to me as I came into the door. "How was training with Lord Leafia?"

I thought about it for a moment as I began fluffing up my Zorua fur bed. Usually, training with Dad is incredibly taxing. He spends five minutes showing you what you have to do, then makes you attempt the move over and over again. It's extremely intensive, taxing, and stressful, and honestly wants to make me throw up when it's all over. Wants to, because if I did then Dad would have my hide.

But today, it was different. Today, I made an enormous amount of progress on my moves compared to the work on my other moves, such as Tackle, Quick Attack, and Sand Attack - I actually managed to fire a Shadow Ball, even if it was unstable.

"... It was good" I said after a while "Difficult, but I managed."

I looked around the room. All of the books that I had left lying around the room were back in their proper spots on my bookshelf.

"Thank you, Sharon, for rearranging my books once again"

"Think nothing of it, my lady. I only wish that you would be a little bit more careful with them. I won't always be around to fix the books you tear."

"Yes, Yes, I know"I drawled, rolling my eyes. She was always harping on my case to tidy my room after reading. I tend to lose my place after I do that, though, so I rarely clean my room regardless.

Even though we sometimes argue, Sharon and I get along fantastically. She nags at me to be careful so she doesn't have to do more work, but I always see her smile after she says it. She's like a mother to me.

Still…

"Hey Sharon", I ask cautiously, as if testing my words. "Who were you talking to out there."

She turns to me, with a confused look on her face. "What are you talking about, Miss Glacia?"

"Well, I heard someone talking outside the door as I was coming in. I think it was a Steel-type, I heard something metallic."

She pondered what I had said for a moment, then gasps and exclaims loudly "Oh! Now I see". She then gives me a smile. "Chef Ambipom's new assistant Pawniard ruined tonight's meal. Lord Black became concerned and sent the Pawniard to deliver a message, after having the Pawniard demoted. Lord Black has ordered me to let you have pleasant dreams tonight" She looked morose after saying this. " I'm afraid I'll have to wait until tomorrow to feed on your dreams.

Upon seeing the look on my face, she shook her head. "Don't let that concern you, though. I'll make sure you have nothing but the most pleasant of dreams, Miss Glacia".

I, however, wasn't pacified. A scowl formed on my face, and I immediately began to insult the Pawniard for causing everyone all of this trouble. This went on for some time, as I ignored Sharon's pleas to calm down.

It went on for a long while.

"... and he hasn't even been properly punished! He should stay in the dungeons for a couple of nights, not immediately be given a new position."

I stop to catch my breath, and Sharon hurriedly interrupts me before I can get going again.

" Miss Glacia, I'm sure King Leafia will make sure that the Pawniard will get punished" she explained "But for right now you need to go to sleep. Perhaps you can describe to me what your dreams feel like to you in the morning. I've only ever seen them as a spectator."

I huffed. "All right" I muttered grudgingly " But the Pawniard better get punished. Our castle holds the highest of standards"

Sharon chuckled. "You sound more and more like your father every day, Miss Glacia", she said with a smile. But then her face suddenly became very stern. "And nice try distracting me Miss Glacia. Off to bed with you"

Mind racing, I replied, "But I need to brush my teeth - oh, and I also need to take a bath." I added maturely

Sharon's response was faster than Dad's Shadow Ball. "You can brush your teeth" and upon seeing the look of triumph on my face she added "quickly."

Then she looked as threatening as I thought a Musharna could be, with an almost evil smile crossing her face. "But since you took so long in your rant against the Pawniard, you won't take a bath tonight - it'll take too long." She then gave me a knowing smirk. " And you know your father will agree with me, so don't try to weasel out of it. You can take a bath tomorrow morning"

"Ugh … Fine" I agreed, since neither one of us wanted to incur Dad's wrath - he was a stickler for bedtimes. "But my bed is going to smell"

"I'll get it washed, don't worry about it."

I quickly entered the washroom and swirled the water around in my teeth to clean it. I spent a little less time then I would have liked, given that Sharon had coerced me into speeding my hygiene up, but I managed to do it thoroughly. As I swished the water, I began to plot ways to enact revenge on Sharon for having me suffer through this. I was getting older, and could have a later bedtime, right? Sharon didn't have to take that away from me.

I spit out the water, left the washroom, and hopped onto my bed again. Sharon floated over to where I was sleeping and began to release hypnowaves to help me fall asleep. I closed my eyes and waited for slumber to reach into my consciousness and take me to tomorrow morning.

Wait a second…

Eyes shut, I began a manic giggle under my breath. I could tell that Sharon had become annoyed that I wasn't falling asleep, but I didn't care. Sharon wasn't going to eat my dreams tonight. She had been ordered to give me good dreams by Lord Black. While I was going to have pleasant dreams all night long, she was going to be hungry all night long.

A bit cruel, true, but revenge nonetheless.

Sharon sighed, probably realizing that for some reason she couldn't hypnotize me to sleep tonight. "I'll try to set your brother and sister now. Please try to fall asleep soon, it will things easier on both of us." She starts to float away. Before she crosses the threshold, she turns to me once again "Good night and Good luck".

Somehow, that felt strangely final … I've probably been reading too many dramas. Maybe Sharon is right when she says I need to cut back on the amount I read. Well, I should probably steer away from the incredible amount of dramas I read at least.

… Oh, who am I kidding?

Ignoring my love for dramas at the moment, I try to settle down for the night. Given the rank smell I'm radiating, though, it really isn't all that easy.

My sweat smells like the most toxic of poisons. I decided that no, I still haven't taken enough revenge on Sharon for making me suffer like this. I deserved to sleep in a nice, clean, and most importantly, odorless bed.

I tiptoe out of the bed and make my way to the bathroom. I was going to take a short shower, just enough to stop myself from smelling so bad.

Unfortunately, it looks like Sharon realized I might try to sneak out for a bath. The door was completely locked. I don't have any psychic powers, so I can't break in, either.

I could probably try to break out of my room and take a bath in another room as well, but I know Sharon, and she knows how I think as well. She probably locked the door behind her as well, trapping me in here for the rest of the night.

Absolutely wonderful.

I headed back to my bed, feeling defeated. I can't escape this room without using one of my moves, and I can't use one of my moves if I want to remain undetected - blowing stuff up usually creates a boom. Feeling defeated, I go back to my bed. I turn off the light, because if someone sees the light … well, Dad and Sharon haven't gotten really mad at me for ages, and I want to keep it that way.

I lie back down on my bed, feeling defeated. I suppose it's time for me to fall asleep, properly. I close my eyes and being to count Mareep like so many of the characters I've read do.

 _One Mareep, Two Mareep, Three Mareep, Four Mareep, Five Mareep, Six Mareep, Seven Mareep..._

Granted, it never works, as they always have some drama keeping their mind from the realm of Cresselia, but still.

 _Twenty Mareep, Twenty-one Mareep, Twenty-two Mareep, Twenty-three Mareep, Twenty-four Mareep, Twenty-five Mareep..._

It doesn't look like it's working for me, either. What a shame. I've probably gotten too used to Sharon's hypnotic waves lulling me to sleep every night, and have become completely dependent on them. I suppose this is how normal people have to fall asleep, then. Just lie in bed until the first vestiges of sleep reach you, huh.

I screw up my patience and slowly begin to wait the night out.

(Two Hours Later)

… I'm bored.

Apparently, lying in bed for a couple of hours won't work for me either. I think that going to sleep without the aid of hypnowaves is the most annoying thing on the planet.

Wait…

YES!

I just remembered that there are other soporifics that Pokemon can create. Other than Hypnosis, there's Spore and Sleep Powder, which practically knock a Pokemon out.

I jump out of my bed to look for any Sleep Powder that might be lying around. I'm pretty sure that there is some…

… in the bathroom.

Hope fading fast, I check the medicine cabinet next to the bathroom door.

It's empty.

DANG IT!

I fall back into my bed, wishing that this horrid nightmare would end already. Sleeplessness is practically torture. Once I see Dad again tomorrow, I'll make sure that they fling a couple of Worry Seeds at our prisoners s they can feel this torture as well.

Ugh… Why does this hurt so much?

I feel my eyes hurting, wanting to shut close and drag me down.

Ugh…

 _Am I dreaming?_

I wake up again in some strange realm. There's rainbow energy flowing everywhere, creating a strange kaleidoscope of patterns on every surface. Strange wisps are flying everywhere, with a strange haunting sound floating around me. Naturally, there is only one thing I want to do right now.

I want to explore.

The floor is made of some strange material. It's harder than rubber, and it isn't as unyielding as stone or as uneven as pure wood. It feels smooth under my small paws, and I rap my tiny claws against it to see what it sounds like. A sharp ringing sound starts singing to me as it reverberates throughout the air.

A strange giddiness fills me as I take in everything around me.

 _I'm dreaming! This is a dream!_

I begin to run around, taking in the indescribable smells and feelings of this strange, imaginary world. I've always wanted to dream. I've never been able to dream before, for some reason. I've always suspected that Sharon was eating my dreams, even when I told her specifically not to. Dad didn't seem to care whether Sharon ate my dreams, for the most part, and she didn't seem to listen to me very much on the matter of her eating my dreams. Because of that, I haven't actually had a dream since I was around three years old, and I've long since forgotten what I had dreamed about back then.

I had read a couple of books that theorized on the nature of dreams. Some of the scholars whose books I have read stated that dreams are a reflection of the mental state of the dreamer. Others say that the dreams come from events that are present in the mind. Of course, there are also some scholars that say that dreams are completely random, but I tend to ignore those unimaginative people.

I was only going to have a couple of hours at most in this dream, so I better make the most of it.

I start running around, chasing the wisps and gazing at the kaleidoscopic colors swirling about everywhere I look.

Dreaming is a blast.

(30 Minutes Later)

You know, after a while, you get kind of used to a dream world.

I mean, the dream is beautiful. I doubt that I would ever find something like this place in the Eon Kingdom, or anywhere else in the world, as an of matter fact.

But the wonder has drained away now that I realize that it's pretty much a barren wasteland. There's nothing here but me, the wisps, the floor, and the sky.

I think I've gotten bored again.

I mean, the novelty has worn off, and I realized that there is literally nothing for me to do right now. I have no books, no pen or paper, nothing.

Well…

I suppose I could start working on my Shadow Ball again. I mean, I'll probably get it perfectly on the first try, since this is a dream and whatever I want will happen here (I think it's called lucid dreaming), but if it's anything like Dad's Shadow Ball, it'll look amazing, and will stave off my boredom for at least a couple of minutes.

I begin the steps to forming my Shadow Ball. I plant my paws, cock my head back, and begin to gather the ghostly energy.

I expected for the energy to come quickly, since this is my world, and I can make anything I want happen.

I didn't expect the ghostly energy to go this fast, though.

Particles of energy begin to quickly stream together, making a Shadow Ball faster than I would have ever thought possible.

'Excellent' I thought with a grin stretching slightly across my face.

I pick a target (a particularly large wisp that has been hanging around me ever since I got here), and I launch the Shadow Ball forward. It flies through the air straight and true. It passes through the wisp, unfortunately( the wisp was starting to get on my nerves), and connects with the floor.

 _BOOM_

Debris begins to fly everywhere as I duck for cover. It appears that my Shadow Ball wasn't as good as I thought it was, even in the dream world.

But how does that work, though? I thought that whatever I wanted to happen in the dream world happened. I should have been able to make the Shadow Ball act like Dad's, but instead, it exploded again.

As the dream smoke began to dissipate, I looked to see what the underside of the floor looked like. I expected to see a crater or something like that, but instead, I saw a gaping hole as big as my bathtub, inky blackness writhing within it. I discerned that the fact that the underside of the floor was hollow was the reason that I heard the bell-like sound from tapping the floor earlier. Throwing caution to the wind, I gingerly stuck one of my paws into the whole to see what was inside.

After all, nothing in my dream world should be able to hurt me … right?

The strange black miasma that moved under the hole flowed like water around my paw. I let out a giggle as the gaseous darkness tickled my pads. I decided to distract myself from the results of my training a minute earlier by experimenting with the mist.

I scooped a little bit of the mist out and started batting it around trying to figure out what was made of. However, I realized that watching the black mist as it formed innumerable patterns on its surface was mesmerizing (it also provided some relief from the neon colors flashing around me in the rest of the dream world). I kept on watching the mist as it kept on moving in undulating motions.

That is, until the wisp I had for target practice earlier gave me a shove for my attack, pushing me into the hole.

I think it laughed as well.

I twisted and turned inside the miasma as I tried to find my way back up through the hole so I could give the wisp a piece of my mind. However, the opaque darkness blocked out all of the light, so I couldn't find my way back up.

I felt a strange wind flowing from my underside, making me realize that I'm falling. As I fell, the mist began to suffocate me. I was beginning to panic because I didn't know what would happen if you died in a dream. By all accounts, you should just wake up.

Except…

Is this actually a dream?

Before I could ponder that question anymore, I hit the ground. I bounced a couple of times, before rolling to a stop. Thankfully, this reassured me that I'm in a dream. I would have certainly died if it wasn't.

I looked around the new place I had fallen. There was no more mist surrounding me, so I breathed a tiny sigh of relief. The miasma had caused more than enough trouble for me, and I would be glad to never see it again. My dream was a weird place, and it wasn't completely good, apparently.

The area was dimly lit as if there was a torch hanging from somewhere. I started to look around, to see if there was anything of interest.

There wasn't.

All that surrounded me was blackness, an unquenchable darkness. In fact, the only way I knew I wasn't blind was the dim light I had observed. I started walking toward that light because there was a lack of anything else to do at the moment.

I thought Sharon was supposed to give me good dreams, but so far my dream has been mostly a nightmare. Eventually, I began to hear snippets of a conversation. I slowed down my walk to a creep - Eavesdropping is dangerous if you're caught.

" _Do you want to be famous?"_ I heard somebody ask in a haunting whisper. _"Do you want to be known throughout the world?"_

A second voice rang out. "Uhhhh… No, not really. I'm kinda happy with my few friends and my family. I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't like becoming a celebrity."

" _Very well."_ The whisperer said in a regal voice that I've only ever heard from Dad when he was commanding the servants. _"Now… Once you've decided something, do you see it through to the end?"_

"Yeah, I tend to finish what I start. Mom says I'm stubborn that way" The second voice - which I could now tell was a Pokemon my age

With a start, I understood that this was an interrogation or an interview of some sorts. I figured that I should probably leave, but then I remembered that there was absolutely nothing else to do.

I'm still unsure of whether this is a dream or not, so I won't risk interrupting either.

The interrogation(interview?) continued. _"Do you think that, no matter what, life goes on?"_

This is going to take a while

" _Have you ever said 'nice to meet you' with someone you've met previously?"_

"Well… I do it on a matter of principle."

" _If your friend was in danger, what would you do?"_

"Help them, of course."

This has been a rather fun ten minutes. After I got myself settled and began to watch the … whatever this was, I realized that while some of the questions were deep and interesting, like the "Do you want to be famous?" question, most of the questions the whisperer has been asking are nonsensical, like "Do you like lively parties?" and "Do you like karaoke?".

I still don't know what that means, but the second person's stammer during its affirmation was hilariously amusing. Somehow, though, I've held back all of my laughter.

" _You meet your crush in the street one day, and she asks you 'How are you'. What is your response."_

"Eep"

I couldn't hold it back anymore. My body shaking, I let off a loud laugh, echoing off of every surface in this underground place. 'Eep'! The perfect response I never thought I would hear! Hah!

That was my first mistake

" _Who goes there?!"_ the whisperer shouted with alarm, having finally sensed me with my incredible shout. And then, suddenly, the dim light that I had seen earlier lit up the room I had fallen into. I quickly took note of my surroundings - smooth obsidian floor, marble walls, two lines of pillars, a narrow hallway.

Facing towards the shout, I saw two floating balls of white mist, one at least three times larger than the other. Both balls pulsed, with the bigger ball pulsing much more violently than the smaller one.

Suddenly, the previously whispering voice increased in volume, to the point where it was a thousand times louder than it previously was. Its roar reverberated throughout the corridor we were in, its rage evident. I shrank back from the misty sphere, cursing my damned curiosity.

"YOU DON'T BELONG HERE, EEVEE," the ball thundered. "LEAVE IMMEDIATELY!"

A corona of light surrounds the ball of mist. I stand transfixed as I begin to sweat buckets. I realize that if I don't move, I will be burnt to ashes. My legs are made of stone, however. I struggle futilely as the corona increases in size.

The sphere fires a beam of the brightest light.

I close my eyes, waiting for oblivion.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

I open my eyes.

The smaller ball moved in to protect me. A small ethereal shield popped into existence as the smaller ball struggled to hold the attack of the larger ball back. Streams of energy flowed around us both as I watched the smaller ball protect me.

Then the attack stopped, and not a moment too soon, for our shield had finally cracked, the second ball shaking in its hovering.

" _Tom…"_ the first voice whispered, its voice reduced to its previous levels. _"Of Course… you said it yourself that you help those you consider your friends. You had sensed the Eevee since the very beginning."_ The voice sighed. _"What a nightmare."_

Then the second ball(Tom?) fell. He (because Tom sounded like a boy's name) hit the floor with an ear-splitting crash. I reflexively jumped at the sound. Luckily, I managed to land on my feet, accidentally brushing by Tom's misty form.

That was my second mistake.

Tom began to let out a scream that was millions of times louder than the crash before. Its volume echoed around the corridor like a devil's chorus, sending shrieks down every path. I covered my ears, hoping that it would end soon.

Then I saw the bigger ball again. I never thought I would ever fear for my life from a simple white ball, but by the way the ball was convulsing, violence in every undulation, I gained a fear I never knew I could feel.

" _YYYYOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUU…"_ , the larger ball roared, surpassing Tom's volume. _"YOU'VE RUINED EEEEEEEEEVVVVVVVVVVVVEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRYYYYYYYYTTTTTTTTTHHHHHHHHHHIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGG! DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"_ I felt psychic energy rooting me to the ground as electricity began crackling around the massive ball. I knew that Tom wasn't going to be able to save me a second time.

'Oh please Arceus', I began to chant as I awaited my electrocution. 'Save me, save me, save me' The electricity began to grow wilder. 'SavemeSavemeSavemeSavemeSavemeSAVEMESAVEMESAVEMESAVEMESAVEMESAVEMESAVEME!'

The bolt fired.

(In the Real World)

I bolt up from my bed panting, sweat matting my fur to wrap my body.

'It was a dream… nothing but a dream."

Hysterical laughter began to shoot out of me like a geyser. I couldn't stop - I was fearing for my life when I knew it was **a dream**! I was probably the most pathetic princess the Eon kingdom has ever had if I died in my first dream.

I began to shake my head. Well, no point in thinking about it now. I suppose it's time to go back to sleep.

I lie in bed, waiting for the same mind-numbing drowsiness to claim me once more.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

I'm shaking, aren't I?

Ugh… I'm scared to go back to sleep. Guess I'll go read one of my books.

As I get up to retrieve one of my books for reading, the door creaks open. I stand still, petrified, then after I realize it was the wind, I sigh, and start cursing myself for my paranoia.

Wait… The door's open!

I decide to leave for the kitchen, as I realize that I've become incredibly thirsty, as parched as a desert (I tried the bathroom, still locked. Whoever opened the door didn't bother opening the bathroom as well).

I enter the empty corridor. Judging by the pale sky, it's around half an hour before daybreak. The chefs should already be up by now, getting ready for breakfast. I can most likely get some water to drink and a bit of bread to eat as well.

As I'm walking down the path to the dining room (I should be able to find my way to the kitchens once I get there, I'm not an idiot), I hear some faint whispers behind one of the paintings of my ancestors. I freeze, memories of my nightmare filling my head, of attacks so powerful they kill the creator of the dream itself.

I really have been reading too many dramas, haven't I?

I shake my head, trying to relieve it of its paranoia. It was just a nightmare! A really bad dream! Why am I getting so worked up over this? I'm Glacia VII of Eon Kingdom. I will have no weaknesses. No one is stronger than I am. I will be victorious.

With that in mind, I'll conquer my newfound, **irrational** fear of whispers and go and investigate.

Ignoring my intuition screaming at me to get out of there, I lift the painting, finding a secret passageway hidden inside. After a moment's hesitation, I leap inside.

That was my third mistake.

Inside the passageway, there was mold and mildew everywhere. I wrinkled my nose and made a note to tell Dad about this passageway. It really needs some serious upkeep. I gingerly walk forward, making sure not to step in the mold. Of course, with the light of the torches behind me, and no new torches in front of me, I soon lose my visibility.

One misstep onto a particularly slippery patch of mold, and I tumble forward - onto stairs.

Arceus really hates me today, doesn't he?

I bounce down the stairs, hitting my body in the most painful of spots (mainly, my face and my tail). I land in a painful heap, regretting my choice to explore once more. I probably shouldn't have come down here, huh. Luckily, a large piece of mold cushioned my fall.

Wait…

"EEEUUUUUUUURRRGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH" I retched, feeling sick. Luckily, I hadn't eaten anything all night, so I wasn't going to throw up, but still! I glared at the forest-green mold, its repugnance disgusting me. Why couldn't have I landed on something nicer looking?

Wait… I can see the color of the mold! I look around - there were torches lining the walls. That meant that there were people down here - torches can't light themselves, after all.

Then I heard the whispers again. I headed forward until I reached a corner. I decided to wait and listen (a nagging thought said that the last time I did this I was obliterated. I was in a nightmare, however, so of course it would go wrong. It won't go wrong now).

"... are all asleep?" I heard a deep voice ask. It sounded heavily familiar, as though I've heard it recently.

"Yes. I've made sure that Sharon has hypnotized them all. They won't be getting up tonight, at the very least." That was Uncle Mentali! What was he doing here? "I checked on all of them before coming here. Leafia, Glacia, Volt, and Nymph are all fast asleep. I made sure that Leafia was in an especially hypnotic sleep - I put a flame to his forehead."

I let out the tiniest of gasps. Dad hates flames with a passion - he says that their only use is for lighting and cooking and that it is a cursed power (it's probably his type talking, in all honesty). He was so sensitive to flames that simply bringing them into the room would immediately draw his attention (and rage).

"Did he react?"

"No - Leafia is nearly comatose. Sharon did her job well. She mentioned she had some initial trouble with Glacia - something to do with ghostly energy - and decided to simply lock her in for the night. When I checked on her, she seemed to be in a deep sleep, so it may have worked out for the best, anyway."

"Very well. In accordance with Lord Black's orders, we will proceed with Operation Marionette. Soon, we will bring out the Calamanero."

Wait a second… that was the Pokemon talking to Sharon outside my room earlier tonight! Before I could fully process that statement, though, I felt psychic energy envelop me. My body turned around, out of my control, to see an Espeon gazing at me blankly, its eyes glittering blue - a telltale sign of the use of psychic energy.

After Espeon had finished inspecting me, it then began to drag me with it around the corner, forcing me to walk with the use of its mind. I couldn't speak, for my mouth was slammed shut.

Once we turned around the corner, we entered a large room. The room was humongous - it was so big you could easily fit in a couple of Onixes inside of it. Papers lay on tables, with chairs surrounding them. I observed a large circle on the ground, strange symbols inscribed along its edges. There was a door leading to somewhere on the other side of the room

I saw two Pokemon. One was a strange bipedal Pokemon, which had blades sticking out of every surface. It had a perpetual frown on its face, as though it was always displeased. The other was my Uncle Mentali, another Espeon.

They heard our approaching footsteps and turned to look at us. My uncle's eyebrows shot up, while the bipedal Pokemon deepened it frown.

"Report," the biped commanded.

The Espeon that had captured me began to speak. "Agent Delta-3, sir. I was returning to receive further orders - the Delta Squad has secured the barrier around the castle to prevent any interruptions. The Alpha Squad's soporifics worked successfully. All of the castle's inhabitants are now asleep. As I returned through the passageway, I noticed the heiress spying on you two. I captured her and brought her here for further judgments." The Espeon took a deep breath. "End Report".

Uncle Mentali had collected himself. He turned to look at me, with some sadness in his eyes. He looked as though he was disappointed with me, as if I had broken some deep trust between us.

"It looks like you had woken up from your slumber." He turned away from me. "This is my fault. I had forgotten to lock the door when I left Glacia's room." He paused, then turned to the bipedal Pokemon. "What are your thoughts on how we should deal with her"

"Deal with me"? What does Uncle Mentali mean, "deal with me"? Uncle Mentali was sounding threatening right now. Around that point, the puzzle pieces began to fit together, but the conclusion they suggested was ridiculous. I have clearly been reading too many mystery novels as well.

There can't possibly be a revolution…

Right?

The biped, after a minute's thought, slowly answered "... There are many solutions I can think of. But we will wait for the orders of Lord Black, Delta-3, Mentali. He has said he will be here shortly.". The biped turned to me, locking his eyes with me as if he knew what I was thinking. "The revolution will occur tonight."

Oh Arceus, it wasn't my imagination.

I struggled against my psychic prison, trying to break free with all of my might. The Espeon( which was called Delta-3, I think), held me fast, however, and I soon stopped, realizing that my efforts were futile.

All four of us - me, Uncle Mentali, Delta-3, and the biped, waited silently in the cavernous room they were talking in. However, at some point, we heard footsteps.

Then two Umbreons came out, their yellow rings gleaming in the dim light of the torches on the stone wall. They quickly went to opposite sides of the doorway. Two more Umbreons came after them and proceeded to do the same thing.

Then a single Umbreon came out. However, this Umbreon was different than the others. Instead of having yellow rings with red eyes, this Umbreon had blue rings with yellow eyes. With a start, I realized that I recognized this Umbreon - I had seen him conversing with my father for years now. He hadn't come around often, but when he did come I avoided him like the plague. Dark energy roiled often around him, and I got anxious around dark energy (not scared! I am not scared of anything!).

The Umbreon continued walking forward, the others Umbreons bowing as he passed. As he approached the four of us, Uncle Mentali, the biped, and Delta-3 all bowed as well. I didn't want to bow either, but Delta-3's hold over my body said otherwise.

"Rise," the Umbreon said gravely.

"Yes, Lord Black," Uncle Mentali, the biped, and Delta-3 said in unison.

Lord Black gazed at us all, his eyes lingering on me for quite some time. Then he spoke, with some strange emotion inside it I couldn't quite identify. "Report on all that has occurred. I repeat: all that has occurred". He stressed "all" specifically while looking at me.

Uncle Mentali stepped up. "The Delta Squad has secured the barrier, making sure that none enter or leave the castle. The Alpha Squad have successfully placed the soporifics we stole in the food of the servants, making sure that they won't wake up for some time." Lord Black nodded slightly, his eyes never leaving my form. "The Musharna has helped us in our plan, hypnotizing all but Glacia into the deepest of sleeps. I personally checked to see whether Leafia was sufficiently hypnotized with a flame to see if he reacted. It did not disturb him in the slightest."

"And what of Glacia, pray tell. Why wasn't she hypnotized?"

"The Musharna told me that Glacia had residual ghostly energy surrounding her, blocking her hypnosis". Uncle Mentali then looked contrite. "Still, when I went to check on them all, she was sound asleep. I forgot the lock the door when I left, which must have allowed her to escape."

Lord Black looked pensive. Then, out of nowhere, he fired a bolt of nightmarishly black energy straight at Uncle Mentali. He collapsed, black lightning crackling around him.

Lord Black stepped up to Uncle Mentali, placed one of his paws on Uncle's prone sides, and then spoke with a dead, yet chilling, voice. "Mentali," he intoned "I honestly expected better of you. It has been years since you have failed like this." He then began forming the black energy around his mouth again. "Your role in the revolution is almost over. Tell me one good reason why I shouldn't end you here."

Nobody moved. Nobody reacted. It was almost like they expected this sort of thing would happen, like it was routine.

Uncle Mentali began coughing. He replied in a raspy voice "Nothing, my lord. I beg your mercy".

Lord Black continued to stare at Uncle Mentali, holding his gaze there for several seconds. Finally, he lifted his eyes. "Mentali," he spoke with finality "regardless of your recent failure, you will be forgiven. Let it not be forgotten that I am merciful to all" he said with malice written upon his face. "However, once the revolution has ended, you will be punished - severely."

"Yes, My Lord". Uncle Mentali nodded.

"Good. Before we deal with Leafia, we must deal with Glacia." I felt a large spike of fear pierce me at these words. I saw how easily Lord Black was able to defeat Uncle Mentali, one of the best battlers in the land. Given that I've never even fought in an actual battle before, I don't think there is much that I can really do to save myself.

"We could dispose of her here and be done with it." Lord Black spoke with a chilling grin on his face "But after a moment's thought, I realized something even better we could do with her." He then laughed "After all, I could always use more puppets."

Puppets?

"Bring out the Calamanero." Lord Black commanded the Umbreons. The Umbreons saluted, then quickly left back in the direction they came.

The Calamanero? I remember the bipedal Pokemon talking about before from around half an hour ago. It sounded a lot like one would talk about a final weapon.

After a couple of tense minutes inside the chamber, the Umbreons returned, with a Pokemon in tow - what must be the Calamanero.

The Calamanero was a large, squid-like Pokemon. Its head had several tentacles sprouting out of it. It had a large purple body with six yellow spots. I thought I had seen the Pokemon before, but I'm not quite sure from where, exactly.

"Hello, Calamanero." Lord Black greeted.

"Hello, Black" The Calamanero replied with a sinister tone. "It seems that we will begin Operation Marionette now, eh?"

"Not quite. Right now, we have a little rat who thought exploring the castle at night would be wonderful, eh Glacia?" He faced me with another of his grins "I think that, as responsible adults, we really should deal with rats, Calamanero." Another spike of fear shot through me. What were they going to do with me?

The Calamanero began to chuckle. "Alright, Black, what should I do with her. You clearly want to punish her, so I'm assuming you don't me to inflict amnesia upon her, do you"

"No, I just want you to hypnotize her to become another puppet. It'll be fitting - the master becomes the slave. Poetic, really."

Hypnosis? Puppet? SLAVE?

'Lord Black wants to enslave me - and Dad too! I have to get out of here!'

I struggle with a fervor I never knew I had. My life is one thing. My intelligence, my personality, my identity - I can never, NEVER let those go.

The Calamanero nodded. "Alright. I'll begin right now."

NO! I HAVE TO ESCAPE.

I continue to struggle. Delta-3's grip is so strong, however, that I can't move an inch.

The Calamanero's yellow spots begin to glow ominously. My struggles slowly become weaker and weaker, as I begin to lose my will.

'Oh Arceus… anybody… please save me.' I begged with my last words.

Then, something responded.

 _Alright._

Then all I saw was white.


	2. 2 - A First Meeting

(? - Castle Rock)

Pain is one of the best, and worst, feelings of the world.

Pain feels like someone lighting up an electric current under your skin, then setting the current on fire. For the first three seconds, it powers you up and clears your mind.

Then your mind gets cloudy again, and you're in a worse place than you started.

My first memorable experience of pain was like that. For the first couple of seconds, the pain made me feel alive and whole - like someone was shining a gentle light on my skin. It was pretty nice.

Then the other shoe dropped.

OWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!

I know a lot about Pain.

My eyes shot open, burning and searing. I could barely think - my whole body felt like it was being stabbed multiple times, each stab ten times more painful than the last. My mind was being split in two, each side trying to escape the prison formerly known as my head. I wished I could let them go.

I don't know how long I was like that. Could have been a second, a minute, an hour, even a day. I wasn't able to tell, that's for sure. After all, you really can't keep track of time when your very existence was trying to punish you.

Eventually, though, the all-consuming pain went away, and I managed to get a hold of myself. I began to pay attention to my surroundings.

The sky above me twisted and turned above me, a chaotic mess of clouds looking like someone was kneading it for bread. As the sea of clouds moved through the sky, flashes of lightning flickered across the storm clouds, some reaching down and striking the ground below. The scene had a strange beauty to it - it was dangerous but captivating.

'Wh… where am I?'. In confusion, I struggle to get up, but soon I realize I'm a little too weak to move.

Being unable to move, I decided to simply lie there - after all, I had no choice. The view above me was nice, though, so I guess it wasn't too bad. The ground underneath me was jagged and rocky, and I felt several sharp points digging into me. I could have done without those.

Of course, after some time, I got bored with the view and began to wonder how I got here.

'Let's see now… before I woke up I was… I was…' It was at this point that I realized I had amnesia.

Great - Just Great.

I begin to search around in my mind, trying to uncover any memories that I might have had.

.

.

.

Nothing… I remember absolutely nothing. No friends, no family, no name, and no idea where I am. This can't get any worse.

That's when it began to rain.

It was painful - very painful.

The rain was like acid on my skin - corrosive acid. It burned and dug into my skin, leaving me thrashing on the ground trying to escape it. I still wasn't strong enough to pick myself up though, for whatever reason. The rain served to weaken me further as well, to the point where my thrashing faded away and I could barely move.

The rain seared my skin, creating an unholy pain. I decided to use the last of my energy to turn myself over so that I wouldn't have to face the rain. At this point, the rocks were a better alternative pain to the burning rain. The rocks wouldn't melt my face off at least.

With difficulty, I managed to turn myself over. The rain stopped hitting my face, and I second a fraction of a second in relief.

Then the rain began to hit my back.

Until then, I never knew what torture felt like. Later I found out that the sharp rocks were so sharp that they dug holes into my skin. Thrashing on the ground made the itty-bitty holes the rocks had made all the much bigger. Of course, I could barely notice the pain of the punctures over the burn of the rain of my face. At least, I couldn't until I turned around.

The rain dug into the holes in my back like worms into a carcass. Burning hot fire burrowed its way along my back, never letting up for even a second. I tried to move, to call for help, to do anything. But I couldn't find any energy left. I had spent all of my energy trying to hide my face from the burning rain. There was nothing I could do to escape.

As I lay there, a haze fell over my mind. It was a throbbing, pulsing pain that wasn't able to leave me. I couldn't move, couldn't speak, couldn't act, couldn't think.

I fell into unconsciousness, praying for my survival.

(An Undetermined Time Later - Castle Rock)

Owwww… Why does everything hurt so much? What happened?

I turn to my side so that I can breathe easier. I see that I'm lying on a small plateau, with rocks littered everywhere and several stone spikes jutting from the ground.

Let's see now… the last thing I remember… the rain!

I give off a large shudder, memories of the hell rain still vivid in my mind. I would never wish the kind of acidic torture on my worst enemies - if I had any, that is.

Almost involuntarily, I check the sky to see whether there are any clouds left. Thankfully, all of the clouds are heading away from the rocky plain I'm lying on. Hopefully it never… comes… back.

The clouds then proceed to reverse directions.

WHY DID I HAVE TO JINX IT?

A strange energy - desperation perhaps - starts filling me. I'm NOT going to undergo the rain again. I don't know how long it will take for the rainclouds to reach here again, but you can bet I'm not going to stick around for it to happen.

I tried to scramble to my feet - and failed miserably.

It was at this point that I realized that in addition to missing my memories, I was my missing my feet.. and legs. My bottom half was glued together - I couldn't move a single muscle.

Whoever erased my memories( because I'm pretty sure I had memories before they were erased) also found it fitting to make sure I couldn't move as well. Well, I'll show them.

I then tried to lift myself up with my arms - only to realize that my arms are gone too.

Hold on… both my legs and arms are missing/unusable… What else is out of commission?

I then experimented for ten seconds, trying to move all of my parts. The bad news is that my neck is also unable to move - and it feels really thick as well. The good news is that that's the only different thing I can tell is wrong with me.

A crash of thunder hits not too far from the plateau, and a surge of fear runs through me like never before. Enough thinking, I have to get out of here.

Thankfully, I remember that I was able to roll onto my back during the rain earlier. I can use that to get off the plateau at least.

I begin to roll myself, and I luckily succeed. Of course, the rocks stabbing me over and over again were painful, but it will be nothing compared to the pain I'll feel if I stay here.

The person that did this to me is probably laughing their butts off.

Fortunately, I was near a ledge, so I fell off the plateau. Unfortunately, I was near a ledge, so I fell off the plateau.

And… uh… let's not talk about how many times I bounced as I fell and just say it was a rough ride down.

I landed directly on my face. At this point, I'm 100% sure the person that did this to me is laughing their butts off. I'm going to make them pay… somehow.

I roll onto my side to see where I am. I can't see the plateau anymore, so I assume it's behind me right now. In front of me is a humongous grassy plain, the blades not quite as tall as I am on my side.

I still haven't panicked yet, so that's good at least. Of course, that's probably because I'm trying so hard to run away from the…

 _BOOM_

… rain.

A bolt of lightning then strikes the plateau I was on thirty seconds ago with a large crash.

Okay, I have to keep moving, or, well, rolling. I began rolling again.

Only I realized I have nowhere to go. The storm probably moves faster than me, so if I moved onto the plain, which was where the storm was going to travel next, I would be struck by lightning and rained upon, which, on top of the injuries I've already sustained, would probably kill me twice over (I can still feel the places where the spikes of rock had stabbed me from earlier. Believe me, it's beyond painful). I can't stay here for the same reasons. I can't go back up either, and I can't think of anything else I can do.

Is there… _nothing_ … I can do?

"Hey, Litwick!"

People! I quickly turn back in the direction of the shout, towards the plateau. There I see a cave, a glimmering, wonderful cave.

"Come over here! We have shelter!" A deep voice shouted to me.

SHELTER! I see the silhouette of… something at the cave entrance. Of course, at this point, anything is better than the rain.

 _Drip...Drip…_

Oh no…

Raindrops quickly begin to fall. If I'm going to save myself, now is the time. I roll with all of my might towards the cave, moving over everything in my path. As I roll, the raindrops' falling becomes faster and faster. I soon lead all of my focus into moving the last couple of feet into the cave. With a final grunt of exertion, I make it inside.

I'm safe! I won't have to fear from the hell rain anymore!

Of course, now that I'm safe and sound, my body begins to nod off, lulling me into dreamland. I hear a strange chuckling, but at this point, I can't care anymore.

Goodnight…

(Glacia - Limbo)

All I saw was white.

Once I heard the mysterious voice, everything disappeared. Uncle Mentali, the ominous biped, Lord Black, the Calamanero (whatever Pokemon that was), Delta-3, and the rest of Umbreons all vanished, along with the strange room. I'm not sure how exactly it happened, though, as it seemed to me that they were here one second and gone the next.

I found myself in a white plain, with no landmarks surrounding me. Everywhere was featureless, no color in sight. Mist blanketed everything, looking a lot like one of the foggy days I remember from my childhood. It wasn't a dream, though. I could easily tell the difference between here and the dream I had earlier tonight.

I sat down for a second, trying to collect myself.

'What… What just happened?' I ask myself with confusion and a bit of fear.

Okay, Okay, panicking won't help me right now, that's not what the books say will help you.

 _Hello._

"GAH!" I twist around at the sound of something (or somebody) behind me. There was nobody there, just more mist. I don't allow myself to relax, though. Just because they're hidden doesn't mean they're not here.

" _How are you, Miss Glacia?_ ", the voice in the mist called

I keep my body tense as I turn around again to the sound of the voice. I keep my legs crouched in case I need to dodge, but most of my attention is spent looking for the voice in the mist.

The voice, however, was silent. I keep on waiting for it to make another sound so I can locate it again, but whatever Pokemon it is it knows how to keep itself hidden, that's for certain.

" _How are you, Miss Glacia?_ ", the voice in the mist called again.

I spin around once more, trying to find the mysterious voice, but I once again had no luck.

"Hello?" I ask with trepidation, trying to continue the conversation to locate the mysterious voice.

" _Hello, Miss Glacia. How are you?_ ", the voice replied with some amusement its tone, as though it was finding me and my reactions funny. The voice, now that I was paying attention to it, was the same mysterious voice that had saved me when I was being hypnotized by the Calamanero. It had a regal, but androgynous, sound, as though it were something timeless and powerful, like what I imagined a Legendary Pokemon would sound like.

"I'm… well?" I answer with a little bit of confusion and reluctance. "I'm not hypnotized, so I think I'm doing rather well."

Wait a second! What am I thinking? Of course I'm not doing well! I was attacked, not only by my own dreams but by my future subjects, soldiers, and general (as well as whatever the Calamanero was). I'm sleep-deprived, injured, and am trapped in an empty reality with a voice that sounds like a legendary Pokemon. There's a revolution going on as we speak. I have to warn Dad! I have to go save Nymph and Volt! I have to -

" _Calm down, Miss Glacia,_ " the voice interrupted, its voice soothing and kind. " _There's nothing you can do right now._ "

"What do you mean 'There's nothing that I can do right now'? There is a revolution going on! I have to warn Dad! I -"

" _No, Miss Glacia_ " the voice interrupted again, its words this time containing an edge of steel within them. " _You won't be able to return to the castle again for some time. You called for help, for me to save you. If you go back. I will have failed in my duty. You will stay here until you may be returned back to the castle when it is safe again._ "

"But my Dad is in danger, he needs to be warned! There's a **revolution** going on right now" I emphasized.

" _You can't return when there is a revolution going on, Miss Glacia._ " The voice returned, sounding more and more displeased with me as time went on. A small part of me was worried about what would happen if we pushed the voice too far, but I squashed it down. I'm Glacia VII of Eon Kingdom! Nobody is above me but Dad! Nobody!

"Bring me back to the castle! Now!" I order, remembering the lessons Dad taught me on ordering around people of lower rank (basically, everybody). I turned on an unyielding stare upon where I had pinpointed the voice spoke from, some place to my right. "I must return immediately!"

" _Very Well_ " the voice bit out with a tinge of anger in its tone. I ignored the small part of me that was screaming out "Danger!". I had won! I'm going to return to save Dad! " _I will return you to the castle grounds_ ". I then felt a small spike of dread as I heard the voice speak out in an ominous tone. " _Good Luck, Miss Glacia. You'll need it._ "

The mist began to clear, with nothing in sight. As I stood there, waiting for the voice to bring me home, I felt a strange energy surround me. Then, in the formless white expanse, something appeared. It was a round, but not circular, concave disc. It had bands of light blue and black alternating, with new bands being constantly being generated from the edge and old bands being sucked into the center, giving off an appearance of a gravitational pull. The edges of the disc were wavy, humming with a strange sound. All in all, it was a strange sight, and it looked almost alien to me.

The voice spoke up again, venom in its voice. " _If you wish to return to the castle grounds, you simply need to step into the Dimensional Hole_ ". The voice then went quiet again.

So that's what the strange disc was - a Dimensional Hole. It didn't look like much of a hole to me, but if it brings me back to the castle, I'll take it.

Before I leave, I turn to where I last heard the voice speak. "Thank you," I said, my posture perfect as I ran through the steps of properly thanking somebody my father had taught me.

The voice said nothing.

I stepped up to the Dimensional Hole and poked my paw inside. It was completely enveloped by the hole, with light being emitted from the point of contact. I removed my paw, and both it and the Dimensional Hole returned to normal. I took a deep breath, stepped back a couple of feet, then ran with full force and the Dimensional Hole, jumping in at the very last second.

Then everything shifted.

(Dimensional Tunnel)

The floor disappeared, and the white plain transformed into something incredibly bizarre. My surroundings turned into a starry sky, except where there was supposed to be darkness there was a beautiful light blue. I seemed to be trapped in an invisible tunnel that was surrounded by glowing white panels, interspersed with glowing rainbow lines.

Because of my jump and my current lack of gravity, I was spinning wildly. I was heavily reminded of the time I had fallen in my dream. Of course, this wasn't a dream (I think). I managed to right myself, though, and eventually, I managed to gain a form of stability.

"So this is what Dimensional Travel is like," I remarked with some interest. Once I return to the castle and save my Dad, I'm going to talk to Sharon about this whole journey. I mean, I feel like the protagonist of my own story. Can you imagine it? 'The Adventure of the Wonderful and Magnificent Princess Glacia'.

A flash of color pulls me from my fantasy, and I twist around. However, when I look for whatever had made the flash of color, I find nothing. Then a second flash of color pops. I twist around again trying to see what happened. Then a third flash. Then a fourth flash.

Soon there are flashes of colors happening around me. I close my eyes, thinking that this must be the voice's retribution for acting so caustically. However, I soon sense that the flashes of colors stop from behind my eyelids, and I reopen my eyes to see what has changed. The previously white panels now have colors on them, and I 'swim' over to one of the panels to more closely see the difference.

"What on…"

The panel had a rainbow of colors swirling over it. The patterns the panel made were mesmerizing, and I got sucked into watching it. Then there was a flash of light - white this time - and the colors stopped swirling. I felt a pang of disappointment - the swirling colors were incredibly beautiful - but then I noticed what had replaced the swirling colors. In place of the swirling colors on the panel, there was now a picture.

The picture was of fire. The fire, even though it was not moving, was strangely captivating, as though I could not tear my eyes off of it.

That is, until I saw more flashes of white light out of the corner of my eye. I 'swam' to the other panels to see what other picture they could show me.

On the panels, I saw a multitude of images, none of them as pleasant as the image of the fire. I saw pictures of castles falling into ruins, of town burning under a green blaze. I saw pictures of waves coming out from the expanse of the sea, and of warped forests and mountains.I was starting to become curious. What did these pictures mean?

All of a sudden there was a glow of light. I turned around again and found myself looking at the end of the tunnel.

"Finally!" I shout with joy. While the tunnel inside the Dimensional Hole was an amazing experience, I have a job to do. I swim forward into the light and get ready to go home.

(Great Plains)

I find myself in the… field?

.

.

.

.

.

"Where am I?"

The voice most certainly did not take me back to the castle - in fact, now that I'm thinking about it, I don't think it even intended to take me to the castle, given how nasty its voice was when it was 'following' my orders. After I save my dad and the castle, I'm going to give the voice a piece of my mind. But first, to find out where I am.

I'm in the middle of a giant field, blades of sickly yellow grass a half-foot high. Off in the distance to my right, there is a large forest, foliage thick and green. The forest stretches on for as long as the eye can see, a sea of plants. To my right, there's a large spire of rock, with a flat top. Both of these landmarks look nothing alike and are completely unfamiliar to me. So it's time to think and consider my options.

If I go into the forest, I'll probably get lost - I don't recognize the forest, and there isn't any forest that I know of near the castle. However, there are probably some Pokemon that live in the forest, and they might be able to show me the way to a place I can recognize - and they will help, I'm the princess of Eon Kingdom.

If I go to the large spire of rock, I probably won't find any Pokemon there - it looks devoid of any Pokemon. However, the height of the spire will make it good for looking out for any landmarks, like a town or a village.

Both are good options. Hm…

.

.

.

.

.

All right, I've decided on what I'm going to do. I'll go to the spire of rock and look for settlements that I can travel to. If I don't find any landmarks, then I'll go into the forest and find some Grass or Bug Pokemon to show the way to the nearest settlement. Problem Solved!

I feel pleased with myself, knowing that this was what a hero would do. I started to head toward the spire of rock and began to whistle a lullaby my mom used to sing to me.

 _Don't fret, don't cry_

 _Don't be shy_

 _Nothing will come to bite_

 _Mom is here tonight_

 _Strength, courage, power, light_

 _You won't fear from the night_

 _You are the apple of my eye_

 _Listen to my lullaby_

I hummed the tune of the lullaby over and over to myself as I approached the spire of rock. Mom's lullaby always helps pass the time. I just wish we could sing it together again.

Luckily, I had reached the spire of rock. I began to climb the spire, although it wasn't without difficulty, as there had evidently been some rain here - the slope of the spire was thick with mud. To avoid covering my paws with the muck, I hopped from some boulders that were conveniently leading to the top of the spire. I hopped to the top and began to survey the plateau I was on.

The top of the plateau was rough, with a couple of patches of spiky rock jutting out. There was a lot of water on the ground, collecting in puddles. There was a strange white and viscous fluid lying in one of the puddles. I gingerly touched it to see what it was. It felt like melted wax, except it was cold to the touch.

'What is wax doing here?' I asked myself. Wax was a precious commodity - it was incredibly hard to make and find, aside from the easy route of hunting down Litwicks. We easily had enough for our candles in the castle, but it was very expensive - Dad never stops talking about it.

Dad!

With a start, I remembered my purpose for coming to the top of the spire. I quickly went around the top of the plateau which was only about the size of the dining room in the castle.

Checking the top of the plateau was fruitless, however. Off on the distance in the direction away from the forest, I could barely see a body of water. Other than that, we were simply surrounded by plains. Looks like I'm going to the forest.

While I'm heading down from the plateau, however, I see something, or should I say, someone. I could see a Pokemon walking across the plains heading for the spire of rock I was currently climbing down. I finally had a Pokemon I could talk to, as I could easily see that the Pokemon didn't walk like a feral would - the Pokemon had a sure and steady gait, and seemed to be walking with a purpose.

I quickly scampered down the slope of the spire and instantly ran to intercept the person as they were heading toward me. I instantly stopped, however, when I saw what Pokemon it was.

The Dragonite turned to me, its cream-colored antennas waving in the air. It looked at me with a measure of alarm.

"Um, excuse me, do you know the way to Eon Castle?" I don't have any time to waste, so I get straight to the point. Dragonites are always kind and helpful, so I'm sure he or she won't mind. "I'm Princess Glacia of Eon Castle" I hurriedly explained, "and I need to return to the castle immediately." Hitting upon a stroke of genius, I then said that "You'll be paid handsomely if you can get me there by tonight". I then sat back, as smug as a Snivy. Nobody could refuse that offer. Soon I'll be on my way to the castle to save the day.

The Dragonite had a pensive look on its face. Then it smiled - and suddenly, even though I know about the biological kindness of Dragonites and the power my offer held, I get nervous. The Dragonite opened its mouth and said: "You'll do."

Then the Dragonite is a blur of motion, and I black out.

(Litwick - Henka's Cave)

I slowly come to my senses. Although I wish I didn't - my head feels like it's about to explode.

Where… Where am I _now_?

It looks like I'm in a cave right now. I feel rocks underneath of me, like the plateau I had rolled off of earlier. There's light coming from somewhere to my right, but it's really, really dim - I can only see a bit of the rock wall in front of me with it.

The rocks are stabbing into me. Why have rocks suddenly become so painful? Between them and the hell rain, I'm beginning to wonder if I've been sent to Hell (or at least its equivalent). Ugh…

.

.

.

.

.

Well standing around and moping isn't going to help me. I have to figure out what happened to me - who or what took my memories, who or what removed my limbs and neck, why nature is out to kill me, and most importantly, WHERE AM I?

I figure that I at least have to get a move on before the cave collapses on me or something. I roll onto my - nope, I'm tied down. I'm upright and I can't move. Great - Just Great. Looks like I won't be going anywhere anytime soon.

If only I could see! If only I had some lig-

And then there was light.

My mouth gaped open. How? HOW? I thought things weren't going my way today - and even if they were, HOW? Light doesn't come at the flick of a switch - well, it does, but not when there is no actual switch.

Switch... Hmmmmm… I wonder…

'Lights Off'

The light disappeared.

'Lights On'

The light reappeared.

You have got to be kidding me. I can turn some weird light source on and off… with my MIND?

Of course, it wasn't good luck. I now simply have the power to turn a light on and off with my mind. Now I have another mystery I have to solve… Great. Just Great.

With the Light on, I decided to look around at my surroundings. As I had correctly noticed, I was in a rocky cave. What I hadn't noticed was the foot-high… ice cream cone… tied down with a rope and a rock… if I want to keep my sanity, I'm going to have to suspend my disbelief and not question it (in all honesty, though, why would ANYONE tie down an ICE CREAM CONE with a ROPE and leave it in the middle of NOWHERE?).

The ice cream cone's binds (if you could call it that. An CREAM CONE!) reminded me that I was stuck here, and I glanced to see what my binds looked like - or at least, I would, if I could actually move my neck. I struggled vainly, but nope, I wouldn't budge.

I was stuck, and the light didn't help at all. Great - Just Great.

 _BOOM_

Suddenly a tremor shook the cave I was in. Startled, I let out a gasp.

 _BOOM_

Footsteps! Someone has come to save me.

"HELP! SOMEBODY HELP ME"

That… wasn't me? In fact, it sounded a lot like the voice of a little girl. And it was coming from… the ice cream cone?

'Suspension of disbelief, suspension of disbelief, suspension of disbelief.' I chanted vainly in my head.

"HELP! HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLPPPPPPPPPP!" The ice cream cone/little girl screamed.

Nope, it's still screaming. If I respond, I will be accepting that it exists. I will not do that. I will not do that. I will no…

… Dang it.

"Um… what's wrong?"

"TURN IT OFF! TURN IT OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF!" The ice cream cone/girl (as I was going to call her now that I've acknowledged her existence) shrieked, tears streaming down her face. Yes, the ice cream cone/girl had eyes. Go figure.

"Turn off what?" I replied with confusion

"THAT F-F-FIRE!" she cried.

The fire? What did she mean by that? I couldn't see any fire. In fact, the only light source here is my Lig-

Oh.

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

'Lights Off' I thought, switching the Light off. If I was correct…

"Is that better?" I asked her gently.

"Y-Yes." She said, much more sedately. So it looks like I was right - the fire she was talking about was the Light I have power over. Unfortunately, I couldn't see anymore, so I wasn't able to see her face.

"W-where are we?" she asked, her voice calmer, if still very, very timid. I guess that is simply part of her personality or something.

"I… don't know." I simply said, because, in all honesty, I didn't know where we were. All I remembered before I came here was the hell rain, rolling down the side of the plateau I was on, and seeing the cave.

Wait… I found the cave because someone called me there. The guy who said I was a "Litwick", whatever that is.

"Well, actually…" I say nervously, "I think we're in a cave."

"I-I think so too," She said in a slightly different, more abrasive tone. Did I detect… sarcasm?

Well, that seems obvious, given the "room" we're in, but still.

"I'm talking about the cave that's on the side of the plateau"

"The plateau?"

I then realized that the girl might not know what the word "plateau" means. I'm not sure how I know, either.

"The big… rock… thing?" I tried explaining to her. Clearly, I'm not very good at it.

"OH! You must mean Castle Rock! I was heading there earlier this morning to play a little bit" She paused for a second. I think she is getting used to me - she's opened up a lot. "But I don't think we're in Castle Rock - I've never seen a cave or any hole in Castle Rock."

"And you shouldn't have." A deep and chilling voice rang out.

We both grew deadly silent. Someone else was here.

A strange chuckle began to fill the air as we waited with bated breath - and I recognized the chuckle. This was the person that had gestured to me to come to the cave earlier - and they weren't as benign this time around (if they ever were).

We then hear a thump as the voice threw something on the floor. I can't take it anymore, and I turn the Light back on to see who our captor is and what he(because I'm pretty sure it's a guy) threw on the floor.

Big mistake.

As soon as the Light is turned back on, the ice cream cone/girl begins screaming again, at the top of her lungs. I flinch for a second, because her scream is loud, and I'm unable to see anything. Then a rush of wind fills the cave, and something grabs me tight. I'm unable to breathe or see because it held me over my mouth and eyes. I then heard our captor speak, a deep voice whispering in my ear.

"Turn it off, Litwick. Now." He then proceeded to squeeze tighter, perhaps to accentuate the order. Not wanting to suffocate, I immediately turn off the Light. The ice cream cone/girl calms down (at this point, I think her mood is a switch - It can switch from confident and assertive to fearful to hysterical with a span of thirty seconds, and back again).

Our captor lets go of my face…

 _THWAP_

… and proceeds to hit me across my face. He then spoke with a nasty tone.

"If you wish to die, you may try that again. Otherwise," His voice then turned particularly venomous "Try Again."

I decided not to try again.

He waited for a second, then turned. "Good"

The ice cream cone/girl spoke up, her voice meek again "P-please don't do that again". I immediately felt bad again - I had forgotten her reaction to the Light. Our captor's reaction to the Light was unexpected, though. Maybe he liked the dark?

"You shouldn't be worried about that. You have bigger things to be worried about." Our captor said offhandedly. What on Earth is he talking about?

"What do you mean?" Ice cream cone/girl asked, meekness replaced with confusion.

"Don't worry about it. You'll go back to civilization soon enough." He said consolingly while making a rustling sound. At this point, both the ice cream cone/girl and I were confused. He told us that there were bigger things to be worried about, then told us not to worry about it? And what is he doing?

"Urgh…" A slightly feminine voice groans out.

Our captor clapped. "Well well well, the _princess_ awakens", our captor said, his tone scathing. "How has her _Majesty_ slept? Wonderful, I hope? After all, no one would want to interrupt your _beauty sleep_ , now." His vitriol was clear in all of his words.

"Wh - WHERE AM I?" the feminine voice shrieked. I winced - her voice was even shriller than the voice of the ice cream girl. A second passed, then "L-LET ME GO!"

"Welcome, _princess,_ to my humble abode. I _do_ hope you find it" he then paused, and then, in the most acidic of tones finished " _comfortable_. Unfortunately, I'm afraid I can't let you go."

I heard signs of a struggle while he was talking, followed by the new girl's grunts. I figured she was trying to escape - though it was futile. Eventually, she stopped trying, and instead let out a few strange expletives like "son of a Hydreigon" and " you piece of Trubbish". I never heard someone wish someone to "drown in a Muk" before. Our captor, if anything seemed both amused and bemused by the new girl's tirade. The ice cream cone girl was probably in shock - I know I was.

"... and I hope you burn in Litwick flames forever, Dragonite!" She finished off, her voice heaving at the end of it. If anything, I was slightly impressed - she had stamina. I also now knew the name of our captor - Dragonite. Whatever that means.

However, I did note the last insult used the words "Litwick flames", given that that's what Dragonite called me, and that the ice cream cone/girl told me to "turn off my fire".

"I suppose you don't like Litwick flames, then, Miss Glacia." Speak of the devil. Maybe I'll get some answers now - to me, they seem to be trickling like honey.

"Of course I don't like Litwick flames - they suck out your soul. Who would like them, besides a Litwick?"

The ice cream cone/girl screamed _again_. At this point, my ears felt like they were going to burst - they had gone through enough torture already. But I can't blame her - I feel like screaming too. The Light was a flame that apparently _sucked out your SOUL_. Anyone would be scared - and I think I'm the most scared of all. This wasn't the type of answer I wanted.

"Oh. Well, that's too bad." There were a couple of stomps, and then I felt Dragonite grab my hair - which, now that I thought about it, has been feeling weird ever since I woke up. "Because we have some right here."

I then felt my Light forcibly flare up, illuminating the cave again.

The ice cream cone/girl had horror-stricken purple eyes, which made perfect sense (and saying that was really depressing). There were two other creatures, though. One was a giant hulking creature. It was colored mostly orange, except for a cream underbelly and antennas and some sickly green eyes. It had a pair of teal wings, and a small horn on its head. Looking at it faintly reminded me of Dragons - and given that the creature was the only one not tied up, it was safe to say that the creature was Dragonite, our captor. Dragonite had a sick smile on his face as he looked down at me, his hand on top of my head.

The other creature was a brown dog... cat… fox? It was mostly a light brown, except for a cream ruff around its neck and the tips of its tail. It's eyes, though, were a luminescent whitish color. Through the process of elimination, I could guess that this was the new girl - Glacia, I think Dragonite called her - and judging by the horror in her eyes, I'm guessing she was regretting that last insult.

Of course, as soon as the Light was turned on, I immediately tried turning it off. I didn't want to suck out anyone's soul after all - I'm not a monster (although I wouldn't cry very long after the death of Dragonite, though. He _is_ a monster, both on the outside and the inside). However, I couldn't. There was some strange force stopping me from turning off the Light - the power kept slipping from my grasp.

The ice cream cone/girl didn't even bother screaming this time - she simply went back into hysterics. Hearing her sobs filled me with a sort of dark revulsion, and a deep hate of Dragonite grew within me. I desperately try to turn off my Light, but it simply doesn't budge. I struggle in my confines, but I can't do anything.

Suddenly Dragonite stills. I immediately take to double my efforts to escape and turn off my light, but his hand keeps its solid grip on me. While I remain steadfast in my attempts to escape, I notice that the air has shifted somewhat, as if a breeze entered. Strangely, though, there was no wind in the cave.

Then there's a blur of motion. Dragonite quickly but painfully tears me out of my confines and holds me in front of him.

Then an explosion.

It feels like the rain from before washed over me in a waterfall. The Light immediately goes out, thankfully, but I now am as limp as a wet towel. I can barely move.

"Well, _princess_. I must commend you on your attack. I didn't know you knew Shadow Ball. Too bad the Litwick suffered the damage." He then paused, and I involuntarily imagined Dragonite smirking "your Shadow Ball was weak, though. He's still conscious."

Glacia roared, and the shift in the air occurred again. I cracked open an eye to see what was happening. Luckily, I could see Glacia clearly with the new vantage point Dragonite had given me. Her mouth was agape, eyes filled with determination. However, my eyes were soon drawn to right in front of her, where the air was warping and distorting. Black globs were appearing out of thin air and joining together into a larger, single ball. That must have been the Shadow Ball Dragonite was talking about.

Glacia then shot the Shadow Ball towards Dragonite. Dragonite, though, didn't seem concerned that a dangerous attack (which I could attest to) was coming towards him. Instead, he simply leaned out of the way. The Shadow Ball impacted the wall behind him, at the place where I used to be, and detonated. The explosion sent debris flying everywhere and caused the whole cave to shake. For a second, I thought that the cave was going to collapse on us, as some stalactites fell, dislodged from the force of the explosion. The tremors soon stopped, and I sighed in relief. I was stuck on my side and I couldn't muster the energy of roll away from a stalactite.

Dragonite sneered, half of his face bathed in the dim light. "Is that the best you can do?" he scoffed.

It did seem to be the best that Glacia could do. She was heaving, wheezing breaths coming out of her every second. The Shadow Balls took a lot out of her.

"Pitiful. A Pumpkaboo could make a better Shadow Ball than you could." He said the word "Pumpkaboo" like it was the worst insult anyone could give. "Well, no one's going to buy you for your battling ability, anyway. With pretty eyes like yours, maybe you'll be used as breeding stock."

We all stilled. Until Dragonite said the word "buy", none of us were truly scared. The ice cream cone/girl was frightened, but not truly terrified like she would be with the Light on. Glacia wasn't very afraid at all, given how hard she was fighting Dragonite earlier. I was fighting too, so I can speak for myself.

But… "buy"...

"T-Trafficking? You're going to sell us?" Yep, Glacia was definitely scared - no one could mistake the fearful quiver in her voice.

Dragonite darkly smiled. "Yes - You're going to be sold." He then began to point to each of us in turn. He started with Glacia "You have rare eyes, Glacia. People will want those eyes. They might gouge them out of you, then make you breed with them so the can have kids with those stunning eyes." Glacia gasped, her face turning an alarming shade of green. I didn't blame her. Dragonite then pointed to the ice cream cone/girl. "That's a shiny Vanillite. Some Pokemon will pay top dollar for some Shiny DNA - there is never enough of it to experiment with." No reaction from the Vanillite (which I realized was the ice cream cone/girl's name). He then turned to me, and I braced myself. "As for you, Litwick, well"He then gave a bloodthirsty smile. "Quality Wax is worth its weight in gold."

 _CRASH_

Dragonite whipped around, with his tail flying. "What was that?" He quickly turned around, and fled towards a corner of the room - and then he disappeared.

An exit! We could escape! An unknown energy filled me, and I quickly tried to roll as fast as I could towards the exit. Halfway there, though, I stopped. What about Vanillite and Glacia? I couldn't just leave them there. When Dragonite returns, he is going to sell them off. I can't let that happen.

And if he catches me? Well, safety in numbers, I guess.

I quickly roll over to Glacia, who was nearest to me. We had a second of eye contact, and then she seemed to understand my plan. She then deliberately relaxed herself to prepare energy.

Glacia's bonds, when looked at up close, were nothing more than some simple rope tying her to a rock. Now, I wasn't stupid. Eventually, all of the clues came back to haunt me. "Litwick", wax, no arms, legs, or neck, and a Light that was apparently a fire (at least according to Vanillite).

I was a … candle. A living, breathing, candle.

A candle that could light itself up.

'Lights on'

The Light reappeared, and as I predicted, began to burn through Glacia's ropes at an alarming rate. She then struggled with all of her might, trying to escape the burning but weakened ropes. After a couple of seconds, the rope snapped and she tumbled out of her ropey prison, with only a couple of burns. She instantly headed over to Vanillite to free her. I turned off my Light, not wanting to have it on any longer than I should.

Glacia soon freed the Vanillite - how I don't know, given that she has no hands, but I don't have any hands anymore either, so I have no room to talk.

The Vanillite, as soon as she was freed, broke down and began sobbing. At this point, I was morbidly curious how much she could cry, because she had been crying near continuously since we were captured.

Glacia tried to console her, but it was futile - everything caught up to Vanillite, and she couldn't even talk properly. Vanillite could only blubber as Glacia tried to shore up her confidence, saying things like "Don't worry, we'll be free soon" or "Litwick and I will fight off Dragonite if he returns".

Eventually it seems like Glacia gave up, as she said "Forget this" and picked up Vanillite by the dollop on top of her head. This caused Vanillite to struggle to get out of Glacia's grasp, but Glacia was surprisingly strong. Glacia turned to me with nothing but resolution in her eyes, and I could see that she wasn't going to leave any of us to Dragonite.

The three of us headed towards the exit, Vanillite in Glacia's mouth. I wished I had arms and legs again because I still can't get up. Unfortunately, I still had to roll (I was getting better at it, though). I could feel Glacia's stare on me for a second, but she quickly stopped staring at head towards the exit with me - much faster, too. Eventually, though, we both made it to the exit. The dim light was still peeking out from where Dragonite had left, so we headed there as fast as possible. Soon we were hearing crashes and booms, and I began to hear a strange ticking sound as well, though I didn't dwell on it too much.

We eventually arrived at the scene of a battle. Dragonite was facing creatures that I had never seen before. There was a blue lion with a black mane, which was by far the most normal of them all (and that's saying something, considering it's a _blue lion_ ). There was another ice cream cone, like Vanillite but three times as tall and shaped differently. There was a blue penguin or at least something that looked like one. Finally, there was a creature that looked a bit like a crocodile or an alligator (can't tell the difference), except it was standing up on two feet. Glacia had a second of eye contact, then decided that getting involved with the conflict was probably a bad idea.

Dragonite had already knocked down the larger ice cream cone, which had burn marks on its face, and was punching the living daylights out of the blue penguin. The crocodile was trying to get in close to Dragonite but was being batted away by Dragonite's tail.

The lion was standing still for some reason, and I couldn't fathom why - at least, not until I saw a yellow glow around it. Given the lights being thrown around in the attacks by these magical creatures - because what else could they be - it was probably a really powerful attack he was charging up.

Of course, once Dragonite saw this, he probably thought the same thing that I did, and made a beeline for the lion. I saw a flash of fear in the lion's eyes, and judging by the disappearance of the light, he canceled it as soon as possible. The lion then tried to run away from Dragonite, but Dragonite caught him with an outstretched fist and threw him to the ground. The lion bounced a couple of times, then tried to get back up again, but failed.

The crocodile resumed its attack again this time with a new fervor, but Dragonite spun around, its tail covered in a clear liquid - which is probably water, now that I think about it. Looking at the liquid made me shiver for some reason. The crocodile flew back a couple of feet, and fell to a knee, panting heavily. At this point, I was scared, because whoever these people were, they were probably better than Dragonite, yet Dragonite was whooping their butts. If they lost…

No - don't think about that. They'll win… I hope.

The lion had finally gotten back up again, and soon the crocodile had followed suit. They were panting heavily, as though the fight had taken its toll on them. Fortunately, the same went for Dragonite who was breathing hard.

The crocodile and the lion went for a final attack. The crocodile's maw turned black, and a strange and unknown fear went through me, and I shivered again. The lion, meanwhile, wreathed itself in a crackling yellow light. Then, from opposite directions, they ran towards Dragonite. For a second, I thought they might actually beat Dragonite.

Of course, Dragonite was quick to prove me wrong. As soon as he saw the lion and the crocodile charging up their attacks, he turned his tail a dark shade of purple, and once the two came near him he spun incredibly fast, knocking the two back into the cave walls, and judging from their twitches as they slid down, they were out of the fight. Dragonite, however, didn't come out unscathed. The lion's energy, which looked a lot like electricity, was discharged into Dragonite, and little arcs of energy sparked across his body as Dragonite fell to a knee… thigh… whatever he fell to.

Then there was a beam of bright light.

Glacia and I closed out eyes as the brilliant white light engulfed our senses. As I opened my eyes, spots dancing in my vision, I saw the penguin, who I completely forgot about, walking toward Dragonite, who was lying on the floor. As the penguin neared Dragonite, Glacia said the word "Bide" under her breath, which I guess was the name of the attack.

Before the penguin reached Dragonite, it turned to us. We jumped because we thought they hadn't seen us yet. The penguin smiled as if amused, and said in a feminine voice, "We beat Henka - you're safe now."

We breathed a sigh of relief…

.

.

.

.

.

… and then drew our breaths again as Dragonite rose up again and punched the penguin across the room of the cave. The penguin, like the crocodile and the lion, slid down the side of the cave wall, clearly down as well.

Dragonite muttered something under his breath, then turned to us, an evil smile on his face.

"You know, if you hadn't been here, he might have checked me again, and knocked me out for good measure. For that, I must thank you" He then started taking large steps towards us. "Now why don't I _repay_ you?"

Glacia and I couldn't move. They had lost. And what's worse, we wouldn't be able to fight back - they couldn't beat Dragonite, so how could we?

Dragonite was within a few feet of us when the Vanillite opened her eyes again, finally stopping her sobbing. Then she saw the larger ice cream cone on the floor, and her eyes filled with horror.

Dragonite saw her expression. He gave her a mocking expression. "Oh, did you _know_ him?" he asks, a gleeful tone in his voice.

"G-Gel… GEL!" she shouts with urgency and fear.

Dragonite laughs and my hate for him starts to multiply. "So you DID know him! HAHAHAHA"

He leans over, laughter wracking his frame as we watch him with revulsion and terror.

Dragonite soon stops laughing though.

It's hard to laugh when you're being hit with freezing white energy.

The larger ice cream cone, who I realized was a relative of Vanillite's, had gotten up again, his eyes gleaming with hate. He was firing a larger beam of energy at dragonite, which was making Dragonite convulse in pain.

Eventually, something remarkable happened. Dragonite began to glow white and began to shrink. Glacia and I watched, dumbfounded, as Dragonite shrunk to our size, becoming a pink blob with a face.

Who was now apparently unconscious, if the swirls in his eyes were to say anything.

"He's unconscious," the larger ice cream cone said, panting.

Quickly remembering what happened to the penguin, I pleaded "Check him again, he might be faking it!"

The larger ice cream cone nodded, the proceeded to fire the white beam again. The blob that used to be Dragonite was frozen over. The ice cream cone turned to me, and asked: "Is that good enough?"

"Uh… yeah."

Glacia and I released a breath we had been unknowingly holding. Vanillite began to cry again, except this time it was interspersed with cries of "Gel" and "Scared".

Gel, which was probably the name of the large ice cream cone, came over to Vanillite to console her. "Shhh… It's alright, Strawberry… it's all right…"

Strawberry? I thought her name was Vanillite.

The other battlers began to get up. The lion was to first one up, and, after taking a look around and seeing the frozen blob that used to be Dragonite, began to wake up the other two creatures.

The penguin, after waking up, came to the two of us (Me and Glacia) and apologized.

"I'm sorry - I… forgot to check Henka. It was… my mistake." She looked like she had something lodged in her throat, though, as it was hard for her to say it.

"Henka… was that the name of the Ditto?" Glacia asked tentatively.

The penguin nodded. "Yes. Henka transformed into different Pokemon to kidnap children for trafficking. We noticed, though, that he transformed into a Dragonite more often than other forms, making us think it was his favorite form." she turned to Dragonite, or should I say, Henka. "He's trapped now."

Henka was in disguise the whole time?

 _BONG_

I suddenly hear the toll of a bell, and I remembered the ticking sound from earlier, which I had been ignoring.

 _BONG_

Nobody else was reacting though.

"Uhh... guys... Do you hear that bell?" I asked timidly.

 _BONG_

"What bell?" Glacia asked me. "I don't hear any bell"

 _BONG_

 _BONG_

 _BONG_

Then the bell tolls stop.

I breathe a sigh of relief because it was getting annoying.

Then everything starts twisting, and I begin to feel light-headed.

This time everyone notices, and someone screams "MYSTERY DUNGEON"

I fall into the sweet abyss.


	3. 3 - A Castle's Rock

(Glacia - Castle Rock)

"Henka… was that the name of the Ditto?" I asked cautiously.

The Prinplup nodded. "Yes. Henka transformed into different Pokemon to kidnap children for trafficking. We noticed, though, that he transformed into a Dragonite more often than other forms, making us think it was his favorite form." she turned to Henka, who was trapped in a block of ice. "He's trapped now."

I sighed in relief - I was terrified. My eyes are beautiful, and I would hate to have Henka get his appendages on them. I decided that now would be the best time to get some information because so far I've been on a wild ride of an adventure. Some bearings would be nice.

I decided to start with a simple question. Hopefully, Prinplup will be able to answer.

"What's your na-" Of course, I _had_ to be interrupted by Litwick, who was lying on his side. _Nothing_ has been going right recently.

"Hey, Glacia, do you hear that bell?" Bell?

"What bell? I don't hear any bell." I reply, confusion lacing my words. What is Litwick saying? Is he hearing things? Annoyed, I turned back to Prinplup, who has an amused expression on her face. I continue with my interrogation.

"What's yo-"

Then a strange sensation falls over me like I suddenly jumped into a pool of water. I begin to feel like someone has grabbed a hold of my fur and is trying to drag me down to the floor of the cave. As I try to resist the pull, the Vanillish (whose name was Gel, I surmise), shouts "MYSTERY DUNGEON". The ground begins to shake, and the walls start shifting and turning. I feel a force trying to knock me unconscious, but I manage to beat it away.

Suddenly, the force abates and then everything stops moving. I begin to take shaky steps forward to rid my legs of the jelly-like feeling they had. The sensation of being in a pool of water, however, remains, and I decide to stop being so tactful and just get my information now before something else happens.

"Wh...What just happened?" Not what I wanted to say, but yeah, I want to know that too.

The Prinplup shook her head as if trying to get water out of her ears. "Ugh… so that's what a Twisting feels like," she said under her breath. "Not something I ever want to feel again, that's for sure."

I begin to feel even more out of my depth. This sensation was apparently a "Twisting". I've never heard of the terms "Mystery Dungeon" and " Twisting" before. My curiosity begged me to investigate like a Poochyena, sniffing around everywhere.

But before I could even attempt to start to ask questions again, one of the other Pokemon that was with Prinplup came over to us. Unfortunately, it was the Krokorok. I desperately wished for the Krokorok to go away - I _hate_ Dark Types.

The Krokorok gave Prinplup a vicious smile. "Well guess what, Pengy? You finally got your wish - you got to experience a Twisting. Now we're stuck in a Mystery Dungeon with a couple of civilians, one of whom is unconscious" he gestured, pointing to Litwick - who I now realize was lying on the floor in an uncomfortable position "and no Escape Orbs." He then opened a bag I hadn't noticed he was carrying and dumped the contents on the floor. Among the things that fell were a paper map that had some colorful stains on it, a bunch of mushed-up berries, and some Glass shards.

Prinplup(whose name was Pengy, I guess) chose to reply, her voice acidic and vicious. "I didn't want it to happen _here_ , Rokka. I never would want to force someone to go into a Mystery Dungeon against their own will - unlike _you_ ," she snapped. "Don't act like I caused this - we both know that Twistings are completely random". She then took a second to breathe, which was then followed by the loudest shout I've ever heard. "AND DON'T CALL ME PENGY!"

"OH YEAH? PENGY PENGY PENGY PENGY PENGY PENGY!" Rokka crowed at the top of his voice, his voice filled with spite and an almost childlike glee. At this point, I was reeling in shock - Prinplup(whose name was _not_ Pengy, if her reaction was any evidence) and Rokka's bickering was loud enough to wake the dead - or at least the unconscious, if Litwick's waking groans were any explanation. My future hopes were also beginning to crumble - we were doomed if these were the people who are going to save us. Right now they resembled caricatures more than they resembled mature and responsible Pokemon.

Prinplup began to open her mouth, either for a shout or an attack. She was interrupted, however, by the Luxio.

"QUIET!" he boomed, his roar crackling with electricity. His Roar, visible with white energy, threw Prinplup and Rokka backward. Once Prinplup and Rokka picked themselves up, properly shocked and disoriented, the Luxio went in for the attack.

"Are you two _insane_?" he questioned, pure disbelief in his speech. "Now is _NOT_ the time we talk about Peng's nickname." Ignoring Peng's cries of "Pengy" not being a nickname, he continued. "We are trapped in a _MYSTERY DUNGEON_ " he emphasized.

"We have three Pokemon that have no training in Mystery Dungeons, I assume," he said, giving me and Litwick a look-over.

"The room's entrance has been blocked." He gestured to his back, which was where we had come from - which also now solid wall. When did that happen?

"We have a prisoner," he pointed toward the block containing Henka, which was lying next to Gel and Strawberry the Shiny Vanillite as they observed us with shock on their faces, " and we have no Escape Orbs" He motioned toward the wreckage on the floor.

"We have to get out of here _now_. If we stay, we'll get Captured." The word "captured" was probably another term I didn't recognize, given that it snapped Peng and Rokka out of their shock. Suddenly their expression turned serious, and they nodded. "Good. The path continuing forward is through there." The Luxio pointed toward the opposite direction of where the path outside used to be - where there was now a tunnel. I began to curse myself. What happened to my observational abilities? They were my pride and joy, and now they seem to have deserted me.

"We leave in a minute. Brush the shards of our Orbs to the side, Peng."He commanded. Peng nodded and began sweeping the glass shards to the side with a shiny silver fin - Metal Claw, probably.

The Luxio turned to Rokka."Put Henka in the Bag, Rokka. We'll deal with him later." Rokka nodded, his eyes not as cruel as they were before.

The Luxio turned to Gel, who jumped up a little (and wasn't that a sight to see?). "Gel, take the civilians and brief them on what they need to do." Gel nodded, then gestured for me and Litwick to come close to him.

I, sensing that I was finally going to get some answers, quickly headed over to Gel, with Litwick rolling right behind me. We neared them, and with a couple of grunts of pain from Litwick, we arrived. Gel looked amused as he looked at us for a second. Strawberry giggled a little bit, clearly starting to feel a little bit better from the trauma Henka had given her.

Gel cleared his throat (which was a little strange), and spoke to Litwick, "Litwick, could you please get up?"

I then heard a sigh of frustration escape Litwick's lips as he muttered "If only I knew how." under his breath. Gel must have caught what Litwick had said, however, and just stared at Litwick for a couple of seconds. Then Strawberry began to giggle a little louder, and a hurt look appeared on Litwick's face. Strawberry, in between giggles, said that Litwick should try to imagine himself floating.

Once he heard this tidbit of information, which I was also marginally curious about, he put a look of intense concentration of his face, looking slightly constipated in all honesty (which I would never say out loud). Litwick slowly began to become more and more upright, ending with him becoming perfectly vertical. The constipated look left his face as Litwick opened his eyes, and then he cheered. I was a little confused, though. Why didn't he know how to pick himself up? I thought that Pokemon were supposed to instinctively know their range of motion.

Gel let out a chuckle. " Okay, now that we're all upright, I want your full attention." Litwick, Strawberry and I all snapped our gazes towards Gel's face. "We're about to enter a Mystery Dungeon. Don't panic, we're going to be here for you. Leave all the fighting to us - I'm pretty sure none of you are trained to fight, and we don't want you guys getting hurt. Keep your voices down," and here Gel's voice became hard "and whatever you do, you are never to leave the group. It's spectacularly easy, as you must already know, to get lost in a Mystery Dungeon"

The thing was, I didn't know what a Mystery Dungeon was in the first place, and that fact was driving me up the wall. I had to know. Thankfully, before I had to demolish my pride and ask Gel about Mystery Dungeons, Litwick did it for me.

"What's a Mystery Dungeon?" Litwick asked bluntly. Gel and Strawberry both had a look of surprise on their face, which for some mysterious reason made my curiosity explode. If Litwick wasn't here, I'm pretty sure I would be the only person who didn't know what a Mystery Dungeon is - and that's unacceptable.

Gel collected his wits again. "A Mystery Dungeon is-" Gel began, before being interrupted by the Luxio from earlier.

"Gel, you and the civilians come over here." The Luxio gestured to where he stood with Peng and Rokka. Judging from the three's expressions, we must have taken longer than the 5 minutes Luxio gave us to work with. Gel, Strawberry and I began to head towards Gel's teammates. However, I noticed that Litwick wasn't coming with us. Litwick had another constipated look on his face.

Litwick is already upright, though, so what could he be trying to d-.

No…

You have got to be kidding me. Did he only ever get around by rolling before?

Judging by Litwick inching forward, and his cheer once he did it, that seems to be the case.

Luxio coughed, and I could see a mixture of amusement of annoyance on his face as he looked at Litwick. "Now that we've figured out how to move," he said dryly, his gaze never leaving Litwick's face "let's get a move on. The more time we spend here, the bigger chance we get Captured." All of a sudden Peng, Rokka, and Gel became serious again. "We're heading out now." Luxio and the rest of his team began walking to the exit.

My curiosity flared up again. I promised that I would get some information soon, but we should probably get a move on.

Litwick came up next to me, slowly speeding up. He was probably getting accustomed to the new style of movement, and while that was great and all, he was still slow right now. He looked over at me, and I felt a spark of connection with him, like the time when he used his Flame to burn through my ropes.

He nodded at me and whispered "Let's go" under his breath. I nodded, and with that, we followed the rest of the Pokemon out into the tunnel.

(Glacia - Castle Rock 1F)

We all stepped out into a medium sized room. There was another tunnel heading onwards, so we immediately went in that direction.

We walked in single file, Luxio in the lead with his fur lit up. He was immediately followed by Strawberry, who he determined as the most vulnerable to danger, then Gel, who was keeping an eye on Strawberry. After Gel came Litwick, who was in the direct middle of the line. Peng came up behind him, her back stiff and straight. I was right behind Peng, so I could see all of this firsthand. Rokka was behind me and rounded off the entire group. I didn't want to have him at my back, because he was a Dark Type - but I don't think I'll argue with Luxio. That sounds like a recipe for disaster.

In the middle of the tunnel, Litwick, thankfully, decided to continue asking questions to Gel. He neared Gel (his speed kept on improving, Thank Arceus), and, voice low, began asking questions again. "So, Gel, what _is_ a Mystery Dungeon?" However, before Gel could answer, Luxio responded with a different question.

"Litwick, what's your actual name?"

There was a long pause as we awaited his answer. Somehow, however, the answer we got wasn't as surprising as I thought it would be.

"... uh… I don't...know?" He said, the words sounding new and untested in his mouth. "...I think I have amnesia."

Litwick - or whatever his name is - had just confirmed my theory. He didn't know how to stand or walk, and judging from the large influx of questions, he isn't worldly at all. Although that does raise the question of how he knows how to talk. Talking is much harder than walking, after all.

"Isn't Amnesia a Move?" Strawberry asked, confusion lining her face.

Gel let out a soft chuckle. "Yes and no, Strawberry. There is a move called Amnesia, but we are talking about a different kind of Amnesia." Gel explained. "The Amnesia we are talking about is when a Pokemon forgets everything - their name, their family, their friends, everything."

Strawberry let out a breath of realization. "Oh, so it just means that Litwick doesn't know anything!"

Gel let out a smile "Well, that's close enough I guess". He turned back to Litwick. "Litwick, do you have any preference for a name?"

"... can't I just be called Litwick?" Litwick asked tentatively.

I decided to answer this question. "Litwick, guess how many other Litwicks there are. The short answer is, more than one. We generally assign names to different Pokemon of the same species to tell them apart. Calling a Pokemon by their species' isn't a long-term solution."

"Oh…" Litwick trailed off. I could tell he was embarrassed, and rightly so - I would be embarrassed too.

At that point, however, the tunnel we were in ended, and we came into another room. This room was somewhat lit, empty except for a few stray rocks and some squared stairs that looked as though its construction was interrupted. There were three other tunnels the room was connected to.

Luxio gave a sigh of relief. He walked over to the side of the poorly made staircase. "Alright, civilians on the Staircase first."

What?

"Huh?" Litwick asked, his voice steeped in confusion. He gave Luxio a bemused look. "What do you…?"

Rokka gave out an aggravated grunt. "Hmph. Don't you kids know anything?" he said condescendingly.

Peng gave Rokka a deadpan stare. "Rokka, we _just_ " she emphasized "established that Litwick over here has _amnesia_ ," he stressed. "He doesn't even know his own _name_. Why do you think he'd know what a Mystery Dungeon is?"

Rokka's scaled cheeks were tinted with a pinkish blush. He grunted again and twisted his head to the side. Peng's beak curled itself into a facsimile of a smirk.

Luxio let out another sigh, but out of annoyance this time. "Glacia, get onto the staircase."

I felt a little awkward, being immediately put on the spot like that. I decided that now was a good a time as ever to fish for information. "What should I do once I get on there?" I decided, trying to go for a little subtlety.

I mean, it's my first try at trickery, what could go wrong?

Rokka snarled at me. "Just get on the Staircase. It'll take it from there." He glared at me once I turned around to look at him disbelievingly.

I let out a sigh of my own, then turned and went a couple of steps onto the pedestal. I turned to Rokka, annoyance in my eyes, only for the surroundings to darken and the staircase to fall out from under my feet. I twisted and turned in the strange ether, only to land back on the ground again. I then fell flat on my face as I landed on another stone floor.

(Castle Rock 2F)

I quickly picked myself up, then swiveled my head, trying to look for the other Pokemon. I was in a room similar to the one the other Pokemon and I were in before, but the proportions were all wrong and there were only two tunnels, even though there were only three tunnels before.

"Something seriously strange is going on here," I whispered under my breath. I quickly deduced that the staircase was definitely not normal - normal staircases don't fling you off into unknown rooms. The other Pokemon - specifically Gel, Peng, Rokka, and Luxio - knew exactly what the staircase was when they saw it, so the staircase must be a part of the Mystery Dungeon then.

There was a flash of light next to me, followed by Peng dropping out of the middle of the air to land smoothly on the rocky floor. She quickly dusted herself off with her fins then turned to look at me and gave me a smile.

"How was the Staircase?" She inquired politely. I was a little peeved - they knew what the Staircase was, and yet they didn't tell me.

There was another flash of light, and then Litwick came tumbling out of the air, also landing flat on his face. I suppressed a giggle - the way he went _SPLAT_ was almost like slapstick comedy, and it was just as funny as slapstick comedy too.

Litwick slowly peeled himself off of the floor, groaning while he did so. His Fire Typing probably made it worse than my fall - those rocks looked like they dug into his wax, and that looked painful.

Litwick straightened himself, shook his head, gave off one final groan, then moved toward us slowly. Peng was snickering under her breath and Litwick shot her a dirty look because of it.

The next minute was filled with the rest of the other Pokemon coming through the Staircase. After Litwick came, Rokka jumped down with style (or at least what he thought was style. He just came forward in a roll and picked himself up with a smirk on his face. I saw Peng roll her eyes. I suppressed another giggle).

Once Rokka came down, Strawberry fell down the air. Unlike me and Litwick, she didn't fall flat on her face, but the impact must have been painful for her fragile Vanillite body, because she immediately winced, and her eyes began to well up with tears again. Although this time, I'm pretty sure it was out of pain and not fright or sadness. She quickly floated over to where we were patiently (or in the case of Rokka, impatiently) waiting.

Once Strawberry came over to us Gel followed, and he had a much more controlled fall than Strawberry did. Once Strawberry saw his smooth landing, she gave out a pout that made Gel laugh out loud when he saw it.

Luxio came out last, landing gracefully his paws as he turned toward us. He turned to Peng and Rokka, who were standing right next to each other. "Have you made a decision on where we're going next?" he asked in a demanding tone.

Peng shook her head while Rokka gave a shrug. "No, Kol. The tunnels look identical." Peng explained. "I was thinking that you could use your eyes to scout out ahead."

Kol nodded. He headed to one of the tunnels, let out a small curse, then quickly ran over to the other tunnel. He then gave out another, slightly louder curse. He groaned and turned toward the rest of our little group.

"Team, we have a bit of a problem," he ground out, his teeth slightly clenched. "Both tunnels have enemies in them."

Oh no…

Rokka clicked his teeth, an irritated look forming on his face. Peng put her face in her fins and groaned. Gel didn't let any reaction show on his face, which was probably a dangerous sign all on its own.

Peng, lifting her exasperated face from her fins, looked at Kol blankly and asked, "Numbers, and species?"

Kol sighed. "In the tunnel on the right, there's a Dewpider and a Wimpod, while the tunnel on the left has a couple of Geodudes." He then turned to the tunnel on the right. "I say we go in here. Wimpods rarely put up much of a fight."

Rokka turned to Kol and sneered in his face. "Well, Kol," he hissed with a dark venom in his tone. I unconsciously shifted away from his acid tongue. " _I_ say that we go to the left tunnel. The Geodudes will fall like paper to Pengy's attacks, and you and Gel can protect the civilians." Rokka gave a particularly dark grin. "Or are you that afraid of a couple of measly Geodudes?", he egged Kol on.

Kol began to growl under his breath, his hackles raising. Gel must have recognized that a fight was brewing because he quickly stepped in between them. "Guys, now isn't the time. We need to make a choice and make it now. We don't have the time."

Rokka shifted his malicious gaze to Gel, but held his tongue. Kol closed his eyes and took a couple of deep breaths, visibly calming down. He reopened his eyes but with control and calmness instead of anger. Gel stepped out of the way again, but was still tense, as if ready to spring back into action should they quarrel again.

Kol turned to Rokka and sighed. "Fine, Rokka, you win. Let's head to the left path." He shook himself, then started walking toward the left path. Rokka followed him with a large smirk on his face.

Peng turned to us, a form of disappointment hidden in her eyes. "You three are next", she told us shortly. Litwick must have seen me edge away from Rokka and decided to go first (Arceus bless his soul). I went next, followed by Strawberry and Gel. Peng came up with the rear.

Before we headed into the tunnel, Kol turned to us again and gave us some last minute advice. "If we encounter those Geodudes I saw, you three should let Peng pass through. We'll need their help." Litwick, Strawberry and I nodded, and he turned back to the tunnel. "Let's go".

Kol moved into the tunnel, and the rest of us quickly followed him. The group was silent. I was tempted to ask the questions nobody is willing to answer again, but the thought of enemies quickly silenced that thought. We didn't need any ferals hearing us, after all.

As we were walking, Kol, Peng, and Gel were very tense - their motions were quick and nervous. Rokka was fine, however - his motion was smooth and quick. Figures a Dark Type like him would enjoy this dark cave.

The light from the room we were previously in was fading fast, and the only lights I could see were the ones that Kol lit up for us with his fur. I was beginning to feel a little apprehensive - from the argument Peng and Rokka had earlier, I could tell that Mystery Dungeons were dangerous, but nobody would tell me why.

Litwick, on the other hand, had no such reservations. After a minute's tense silence while we were walking in the tunnel, he spoke up.

"So, uh, Peng. I was wonderi-"

Kol whipped around his eyes gleaming an eerie yellow. "Ssshhh" he shushed Litwick. "Now's not the time. Ask your questions once we leave the Mystery Dungeon. We're almost to the next room. I don't feel safe right now."Litwick, sensing the urgency this time around, closed his mouth and wisely continued walking.

Not for much longer, though. We soon entered the room that Kol told us about, the one with the Geodudes. The second we entered, Kol shouted "MONSTER HOUSE!"

Pandemonium ensued.

A horde of Zubats came flying out of the darkness, their fangs gleaming a luminescent pearly white. A high-pitched ringing began in my ears, paralyzing my muscles.

The horde began to flood my senses. I couldn't see anything but leathery blue and purple skin, while the horde battered and bruised me, a smell of urine hanging around - and that awful screeching! It made me wish that I would curl up and die, as long as I wouldn't hear that Arceus damned sound anymore.

Somehow, under the endless chorus of shrieking, I heard Kol. What he said, though, chilled me to my bones.

"GLACIA, LITWICK, STRAWBERRY, RUN!"

I didn't bother thinking at this point - an energy I didn't know I had filled my veins, and I somehow pushed through the mass of Zubats, getting to the air outside. I didn't have much time to celebrate, though - as soon as Litwick and Strawberry appeared behind, having followed my lead (naturally), a section of Zubats broke off from the main attacking force and began targeting us.

Litwick gasped, then began to run for one of the exits(and boy, was he _fast_! I didn't know Litwicks could move that fast, ever). Strawberry followed not a second later, and I, not wanting to get left behind, quickly followed suit. We ran as though Giratina's Houndooms themselves were on our tails.

Then I tripped… over a Geodude.

Forgot about them, did you?

I tumbled head over heels, my fur quickly becoming caked with dust and the grains of sand that were lying around on the floor. I heard gravely roars surrounding me, and I knew that I was in _big trouble_.

I picked myself up as fast as I could and began hobbling toward where I knew Litwick and Strawberry were. I was hindered, though, by a searing pain on my leg - was this what normal people felt like when they fell? Count me out.

With my slower speed, though, the Geodudes were quickly able to catch up to me. I could only make a couple of steps forward before I felt a rocky hand seizing my tail. I froze in my place - Geodudes, I remembered, had no lack of rocky muscles, and could fling me across a room like a weight on a string.

So that's what the Geodude did, of course.

I was flying through the air, and not in a comfortable way. I landed in a heap by the entrance to the tunnel, the Zubats quickly began to converge on me, sensing my weakness, with the Geodudes hovering toward where I fell, probably wanting to beat me up even more.

I would have most likely died, in a pain caused by a bunch of mindless ferals…

.

.

.

.

.

… had it not been for Litwick, Arceus bless his soul. Litwick, coming out of nowhere, began to blast the Zubats that were surrounding me with Embers. His fire was weak, though, and while it knocked out one or two of them, most of them came out of it unharmed.

The fire reawakened my energy, however, and I was revitalized. I quickly dodged around the Zubats to the best of my ability (I got hit with a couple of Wing Attacks, but they were so weak the damage was almost negligible). I quickly passed Litwick, who was panting hard from the exertion the Embers had caused on him and ran through the tunnel and away from the mass of Zubats and Geodudes. Litwick soon followed, probably sensing the danger Geodudes and their Rock Type moves could cause to him.

Strawberry was waiting for us in the tunnel, worry etched on her face. When she saw us come into the tunnel, her face broke into a smile.

One that was quickly extinguished once she saw the Geodudes and Zubats that were hot on our heels.

We moved like the wind in the tunnel, moving as fast as possible. However, moving at high speeds like that meant that we were going to reach our destination faster too.

Too bad our destination was a dead end. In the next room, we quickly spied for the tunnels we could possibly take to run from our Pokemon pursuers. We found none, however, and fell into a state of panic. A screeching sound came from roughly ten meters behind us. Litwick turned to me with determination in his eyes.

"No room left to run. Let's fight". The presence he exuded was enormous, almost as big as when my father was in General Mode. I nodded - we were trapped, and we both knew it. No way out, no way to escape. It's time to put our lives on the line and figh-

"STAIRCASE!" Strawberry screamed, pointing to a corner of the room obscured by Litwick. I quickly moved to see that Strawberry hadn't been lying. There was a Staircase, tucked away in the corner of a room, almost blending into the wall. If that Staircase worked like the one on the last floor…

Then the horde came rushing through the tunnel.

"TO THE STAIRCASE!" I shout frantically, and we all make a mad dash toward the last bastion of hope we have (disregarding Litwick's plan to fight). Unfortunately, the horde, with their collective intelligence of a rampaging Slowbro, manage to figure out our intended destination and attempt to cut us off. Luckily, no rocks tripped me this time around, and we made it to the Staircase with the horde of Pokemon right on our tail. We all quickly climbed on to the Staircase and escaped, leaving the horde in the dust.

(Castle Rock 3F)

We land on a heap on the ground, with Litwick and Strawberry sandwiching me. Strawberry rolls off of me with a groan - and I can easily understand her pain. The Staircase was much more painful this time around then it was the first time. I guess that was the reason Luxio and the others made us go one at a time.

I pick myself off of Litwick, whose elastic goo was flattened from the impact. I briefly worried, then remembered that a Litwick's body, while extremely soft and malleable, is able to easily reform after an impact (like the body of a Muk or Grimer). Sure enough, after a second of groans, he slowly picked himself off of the ground, pieces of rock embedded in his body. I winced.

"Uh… Are we safe now?" he asked, pain clear in his voice.

That… was actually a very good question. I looked around and saw that the room, like all the others in the Mystery Dungeon, was perfectly rectangular.

"Litwick, we're still in the Mystery Dungeon, so I don't think that we're that safe." I reminded him if he didn't already figure out we weren't in safety by himself. Even if we didn't have the enemies that were apparently scattered around the Mystery Dungeon, we had that weird Twisting that Rokka and Peng were arguing about - and what were they talking about when they said: "Captured". I _still_ don't have any answers, and my curiosity is starting to howl at me to get some answers.

Wait! Even with my… lack of knowledge and Litwick's amnesia, we still have one informant that we can get information out of. I turn to Strawberry and begin my interrogation, ready to glean some useful information.

And this time I'm not interrupted.

"Strawberry, _what is a Mystery Dungeon_?" I decide to get the big one out of the way. Strawberry turns away from me. Strange - that's never happened before. Usually, Pokemon would answer my questions straight away.

"A Mystery Dungeon is a… trap, I guess" she eventually muttered. I blinked. Trap? This doesn't seem much like a trap.

"Trap? What do you mean, Trap?" Litwick asked, confusion written on his face.

"Mystery Dungeons are a… supernatural phenomena. That's how Gel described it to me." Strawberry explained. "Once you get in, Mystery Dungeons do whatever they can to keep you inside. It makes Pokemon to slow you in your tracks and even stop you, and it creates confusing mazes to delay you."

"Oh...How do you escape?" You know, I love how Litwick always manages to ask the right questions - now I don't have to embarrass myself any more than I have to.

"You can escape a Mystery Dungeon by moving through each of the Mystery Dungeon's floors. Once you go through each of the floors, the Mystery Dungeon will be forced to let you go." Strawberry explained.

Okay… Mystery Dungeons are traps that try to keep you inside as long as possible. To escape, you go have through each of its floors.

"You move between floors with the Staircase?" I ventured.

Strawberry nodded. "There's always a Staircase on the floor of the Mystery Dungeon. The Staircase is the one thing the Mystery Dungeon has no control over. You have to get to the Staircase to escape." She concluded.

Litwick, who had been raptly paying attention as well, turned to one of the tunnels leading out of the room. "Got it. Get to the Staircase as fast as possible, and we escape." He then began moving toward the tunnel on the right. "Let's go."

Neither I nor Strawberry saw any other alternative, so we decided to follow Litwick's lead. Before he stepped into the tunnel, Litwick turned around and asked another question.

"Oh, by the way, what's a Pokemon?"

.

.

.

.

.

You have _got_ to be kidding me. Amnesia has now become my next biggest fear, next to Hypnosis and Dark Types. To think, he doesn't even know what a Pokemon is. How does he even ea… Please tell me he knows how to eat.

I fumbled around with my words, trying to explain exactly what a Pokemon was. I've never had this much trouble explaining something to someone, ever. Granted, I've never had to explain something as basic as what a Pokemon is, but still. " A Pokemon is a… person, like you or me." I try to explain, feeling inadequate.

Litwick let out a sigh of understanding. "Oh! I get it now". I breathed a sigh of relief. "But what about those weird rock monsters and blue bats?" Dang it.

Strawberry took the reins on this one. "They're not Pokemon." Wait, what? "They're creations of the Mystery Dungeon. They're based off of real Pokemon, like you or me, but they aren't Pokemon themselves" For a child, Strawberry is surprisingly eloquent. Then again, so am I. She then adopted a look of confusion. "What's a bat?"

Litwick looked surprised. "You guys don't know what a bat is?" he asked. I felt a spark of annoyance - he didn't know what a _Pokemon_ is, but he apparently knew whatever a _bat_ is.

Strawberry and I nodded.

Litwick adopted a look of confusion. "Oh… its a brown version of those weird blue things."

Strawberry had a look of realization on her face. "Like an Inverted Zubat, you mean."

What did she say? Inverted Zubat? What's that?

Before I could ask her this new question, I heard a loud growl behind us. Out of the tunnel to our backside came a Geodude. Litwick, Strawberry and I all looked at each other, and remembering what happened on the last floor, promptly fled through the tunnel, all interrogations forgotten.

We ran through the tunnel, moving as fast as we could. We didn't look back.

We quickly arrived in another room, this one having three new tunnels. Strawberry just kept running ahead into one of the new tunnels, so Litwick and I followed her.

We came up to the next room, and there was another Staircase there. We quickly climbed on it, and then everything went black again.

(Castle Rock 4F)

We landed in a heap on the ground again. This time, I was on the bottom, with Litwick on top of me. Strawberry was still the one on the very top, and boy was she lucky for that. It'll take forever for me to get Litwick's goopy wax out of my fur at this rate.

Litwick got off of me, and we all picked ourselves up again. We took a second to look arou- Stairs!

"Litwick, Strawberry, look!" A Staircase was lying only a couple of meters away from where we had landed.

Litwick shot the Staircase a bewildered look. "Why is the Staircase here, of all places?" he asked.

"The Staircase can be found anywhere on the floor - it has no patterns as to where it actually is. We were really lucky this time around." She explained. I nodded - it looks like our luck has taken a turn for the positive.

We neared the Staircase. Strawberry went first and hopped on to the Staircase with her levitation powers. Then, after Strawberry disappeared in a flash of light, Litwick went on the Staircase. I don't know how he did it, but he managed. After the second flash of light, I hopped on the Staircase as well, and everything turned black again.

(Castle Rock 5F)

After I had dropped down from the ether and landed on my feet somehow, I shook myself off and turned to face Litwick and Strawberry once again. Strawberry was helping Litwick up - he had apparently lost all of his energy on last crash with the ground, and was finding it difficult to pull himself back up again.

I left her to it and began scanning the room, trying to look for any of the Mystery Dungeon's Zubats or Geodudes. Thankfully, though, I found none. There were also no tunnels behind us, so that's good - no sneak attacks by Geodudes.

I turned back to Litwick and Strawberry. Litwick had finally gotten himself back on his feet, although he seemed to be groaning a lot more than usual. Strawberry, meanwhile, was heading toward me. I guess now I'm the leader - as I should be.

"Glacia, what do we do know?" She asked. Personally, I thought it was a rather stupid question. We only had one option right now, and that's to keep finding the staircases and moving through the Mystery Dungeon until we escape.

"What do you thi-" I began with annoyance, only to be interrupted by Litwick. If _somebody_ would just let me finish my sentences, this probably would go a lot smoother. Of course, once I listened to what he was about to say, I grudgingly forgave him.

"MONSTER!" Litwick shouted, pointing at a tunnel behind him that I hadn't notice. Near the entrance to the tunnel, there was a small Wimpod.

I turned to Litwick, displeasure clearly in my eyes. "Litwick, Wimpods are weak, and they always run away from any possible fights." Noticing the Wimpod scutter away through the tunnel it had come from, I nodded. "See, it's already gone. We don't have to worry about any Wimpods."

Litwick was visibly calming himself down, so I took that as a victory. I need more of those lately - I feel like I haven't been excelling up to my usual standard. Now that the issue with Litwick was over, I can go back to answering Strawberry's question.

I moved back to talk to Strawberry again and resumed what I was previously saying. "Strawberry, we have to do what we did before - Get to the Staircase in one piece. You said that's the only way we're only going to get out of here, right?"

Strawberry nodded. "Right". I nodded - although, for someone who has already dealt with Mystery Dungeons, she didn't seem too sure of herself. Having made up my mind about the tunnel we were going to go in (we only have one tunnel, the one Wimpod went into, so it's not that hard of a choice), I turned to the tunnel.

"Onward!" I've always wanted to do that.

Of course, that's when everything went Iapapa-shaped.

Multiple Dewpiders began to stream out of the tunnel that the Wimpod came out of - and with them came water. Water came gushing out of the tunnel torrentially with the Dewpiders, and I recognized that all of the Dewpiders were using Liquidation simultaneously.

Litwick, Strawberry and I weren't able to offer any resistance - we simply had no energy left, and I, at least, was deep in shock. The Dewpiders nearly flew over us, clicking in delight.

What happened next was a blur. The Dewpiders surrounded us on all sides, blocking all of our senses. I felt squeezed and compressed, a torturous pressure rising all around my body. With a last gasp of air, I fell unconscious in a bubble of water…

(Litwick - Castle Rock 5F)

The weird three-legged spider things were pushing against me on all sides. I felt an urge to unleash my Light and drain their life force, but I know that that will only bring trouble if Strawberry or Glacia finds out. I try to get to that feeling I had when the rock monsters and blue bats attacked Glacia - that burning desire to protect and attack. With all of the water around me, though, I couldn't concentrate. Maybe it's because I'm now a candle and have a degree of power over fire (if the earlier battle was any indication), but water awakened some primal fear inside me, and all I wanted to do was curl up and cry as the accursed liquid flooded everything.

I felt the spiders' claws stabbing me over and over again, and I felt faint. I wanted them to simply end it at this point - life was punching me in the face over and over, harder each time as well.

Then it stopped. The three-legged spiders' claws stopped piercing my now-goopy wax (and isn't that a thought I never thought I would be thinking). The water drained away, providing me some measure of relief. I couldn't move, though - I had used up all of my energy already, and I could bring anymore out.

I stayed like that for a while. The pain gushed through my wax like an unholy geyser, and I simply tried staying conscious - I don't know what would have happened if I fell unconscious, though. Nothing good, I suppose.

Luckily, my energy slowly began to flow back into me. My wax began to solidify, purging the wetness with vengeance. Slowly, I began to regain my power - and with one giant, wax-wrenching pull, I stood up.

I took a couple of seconds to stabilize my breathing because I still wasn't on the top of my game - the spiders had really done a number on me. Once my breathing had calmed down, I looked around for Glacia and Strawberry, expecting to find them near where I was lying - and found nothing.

Wha-what?...

An icy feeling gripped me, as I began to realize what had happened. The Dewpiders weren't just attacking us like the rock monsters and the blue bats had. There was no corpse on the ground of either Glacia or Strawberry (and what a chilling thought that was). There was nothing - absolutely nothing. Nothing - except for a trail of water running back through the tunnel.

I'm not dumb - I can put two and two together to make four.

The spiders captured Glacia and Strawberry. The spiders ambushed us as we were talking, and I have the strangest feeling that it was the Wimpod's fault. I fell unconscious, and then the spiders left, Glacia and Strawberry nowhere in sight. The spiders probably - no, surely - took Glacia and Strawberry with them, and I'm pretty sure that the water spiders are going to eat them. It's another strange feeling, but then again I had a strange feeling about the Wimpod too, and look where that got us.

Wait… if the spiders are going to eat Glacia and Strawberry…

With a start, I sprang into action, quickly getting into the tunnel as fast as I could. Who knows what had happened as I was trying to figure out what happened - I don't want to know.

I quickly moved (there's no other word for it, it's not walking or running, I just move) through the tunnel. Puddles of water were everywhere, and I slowed down when I encountered one to get around it, but that was the only reason I ever slowed down. Otherwise, I just kept going, hoping to get there before they get devoured.

Around five minutes after I started running in the tunnels, I encountered one of the water spiders. It was wandering around in a strange daze, but it locked eyes on me and went for the kill. I suppressed my desire to run away and brought my Light to rear - I could care less about what happened to a construct of the Dungeon.

Even though my Light was siphoning off the spider's life energy, the spider was still attacking me. Feeling a little rejuvenated by the energy I had absorbed, I quickly summoned a tongue of fire from my light like I had before - the protective feeling I had before bursting through me like electricity.

The tongue of fire I had summoned had bounced off of the spider's bubble like rubber, and I realized that attacking something that had power over water with fire wasn't the best idea. The spider then surrounded itself with water and slowly began rearing itself for one of those water tackles I saw earlier.

I took that as my chance to skedaddle past it.

Luckily, it seemed that you can't change the direction of one of those high-speed water tackles - the water spider shot off into the darkness. If I hadn't moved…

I then realized how much time I had wasted fighting the spider. I quickly began to run like the wind again, hoping I could get there on time (if that was possible).

As I moved through the rooms and tunnels, I began to encounter more and more water spiders. Luckily, I figured that the best way to fight them was to not fight them - I kept my Light on at all times and flung the tongues of fire at every spider I came across. While their vision was obstructed by the flames I quickly ran past them. Usually, I managed to get them confused by the lack of Litwick and ran away safe and sound.

Of course, that had to change when I entered a room and saw two water spiders. I cursed because of course, they begin to team up now. Really, Mystery Dungeon? Really?

The two spiders angrily clicked at me, and instead of cloaking themselves in water and tackling me like the other spiders they simply shot a stream of bubbles at me. I almost laughed - almost, because when two of the bubbles collided a large boom went off and propelled the rest of the apparently explosive bubbles toward me.

Bubbles suddenly became a lot scarier - in fact, recently everything has become a lot scarier.

I quickly fled for the only other tunnel in the room. Swerving around the spiders, I made it to the tunnel almost unscathed. Almost, because the spiders, after shooting the boom-boom bubbles at me, decided that water tackles were the way to go. I managed to dodge the first one with impressive dodging skills (that was 99% luck), but got clipped by the second water tackle and suffered painful damage because of it.

The tackle threw me through the air and I landed in a painful heap at the entrance of the tunnel I was running to. Remembering the spiders, however, I picked myself up in an instant and immediately began running for my life (and Strawberry and Glacia's too). I managed to outrun the spiders and escaped.

By the time I got to the end of the tunnel I had run into, I was out of breath and gasping. I… don't think I was meant to run like that for long periods of time. My body is screaming at me to stop. I don't have much of a choice, though.

I enter the final room.

Inside I find many things. First of all, I spy another Staircase in the corner, almost invisible against the brown rock backdrop of the cave. I mentally scream in relief, because that was almost perfect.

What was not almost perfect was what was happening everywhere else. The rocky room was wrapped in silk like a spider did the wallpaper. Streams of the stuff hung from a domed ceiling like ropes, with a couple having an ovular sphere attached to them. From what I know of spiders, I could guess what their purpose was.

However, while I definitely could tell that the room was the den of the spiders', I still couldn't see any spiders. That, compounded with the anxious feeling that served me so well before and the spiders' previous tactics of ambush, led me to believe that I was being tricked. I debated actually entering the room because while it seemed to be the room I needed to be in, it was almost certainly a bad idea to actually go in. I dillied and dallied for at least half a minute.

That is until I heard a scream.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!," a female voice screamed. With a start, I realized it was Glacia. Without thinking, I leaped into the room. What I saw, though, made me snap out of my heroic daze.

There, thankfully, was no ambush - none of the little spiders in the initial attack were here. What was there was a giant spider, and when I say giant, I mean 6-foot-tall giant. The big spider wasn't as big as, say, Henka when he was the hulking Dragon, but it was still 6 times bigger than I was.

The Spider was dealing with two large spheres on a couple of strands. One of the spheres was shaking and shouting in Glacia's voice. With a start, I realized that:

a) Glacia's still alive

b) Strawberry might not be

c) Glacia might not be alive for much longer either.

The Spider was knocking Glacia's silky cocoon into the wall over and over again, clearly amused. Every time she was knocked into the wall, Glacia's desperate screams became louder and louder.

Now, at this point, there were many things I could do. I could have run toward the Staircase, fleeing for my life and safety. I could have been frozen in place and later get eaten by the Spider.

Instead, I, insanely, lit up my Light and threw flames at the Spider. Don't ask me why - I knew it was stupid. I knew it would have no effect.

Of course, when the spider caught on fire and began clicking madly I was forced to change my mind, beginning to throw flames around like an arsonist with pyromania.

It was effective… for about ten seconds. Then the Spider cloaked itself with that accursed water, putting out all of the flames and covering itself with a thin film of water. It turned to me, hate gleaming in its eyes, and I knew that I was royally screwed.

Somehow, I caught Glacia's eye. Her eyes were panicked, frantically opened wide. She probably realized that I was screwed too.

Then shadowy indigo particles began gathering near her mouth, which wasn't sealed shut. I felt the shift I had felt earlier in Henka's hideout, and my eyes widened - the Shadow Ball! We could use that!

Of course, the Spider didn't wait forever. Once all of the fires were out, it cloaked itself in water again and shot toward me, twice as fast as the little spiders. I managed to get out of the way, desperation powering my movements. The Spider barreled past me and rammed itself into the silky wall that was previously behind me.

What happened next was a pure stroke of luck. I decided that another attempt at some fire would do well (better than doing nothing, after all) and shot off another tongue of flame. However, while my power was still going strong, my aim was inaccurate and I only manage to hit next to him… straight onto the spider web on the wall. I never knew spider webs could catch on fire so easily, by the way.

Couple that with Glacia's Shadow Ball, which she had released only a couple of seconds after I shot off the flames, and next thing I knew the Spider was writhing on the ground, with fire, water, and shadowy energy dancing all over it.

I fell to the ground, not unconscious but exhausted. I couldn't find any more energy to get up anymore - the last ten seconds took everything I had. I only scraped enough energy to see the fires quenched and the shadowy energy purged. The Spider turned to me on shaking legs, eyes filled with a loathing that terrified my soul. I could feel Glacia begin to charge another Shadow Ball, but I knew it would be too late. I was done for - we were all done for.

The Spider cloaked itself in water again and began to charge again. Thirty feet, twenty-five feet, twenty feet, fifteen feet, ten feet…

… oh well. It was nice being a candle, I guess. Pyrokinesis was fun. It could have been worse.

The Spider leaped and dived, and I saw the light at the end of the tunnel…

… Wait a second, that's Kol!

The blue lion came charging at the Spider. He managed to intercept the Spider by tackling it at the very last second when I was literally a foot away from death. The Spider was knocked away, and Kol bit it with glowing yellow fangs. I then saw the Spider convulse painfully with electricity, before finally going limp.

We had won.

I fall, again, into a blissful slumber.

(Glacia - Castle Rock 5F)

You know, watching the Araquanid get electrocuted by Kol's Thunder Fangs was rather cathartic. Every painful twitch the Araquanid released during its prolonged electrical shock was like a healing balm for my nerves. When the Araquanid collapsed, I let out a cheer.

Kol stepped off of the Araquanid, then shaking his fur to clear off the water. Soon Rokka, Peng, and Gel came charging in, looking none the worse for the wear. Gel quickly scouted the area, looking for something or someone (probably Strawberry), then he noticed me. Gel let out a gasp.

"They're dead." He said with a note of finality. I blinked, confused. We weren't dead.

Rokka gave off a bemused look. Then he snorted. "Hey girl, you okay?"

My mouth began to work again. "Get me down from here!" I screamed.

Gel gave off a sigh of relief, and I felt a little sorry for the Vanillish. It wouldn't do if Strawberry and I were actually dead.

Peng's claws took a metallic sheen, and she began running toward the wall. Why she did that became clear once she performed an acrobatic maneuver and used Metal Claw on the strands holding Strawberry and me up. The silky cocoons holding Strawberry and I fell to the floor, luckily taking most of the impact forces with them. Peng, Rokka, and Gel proceeded a variety of attacks on the cocoons, destroying them and freeing us in the process. I tumbled out onto the rocky floor of the Mystery Dungeon. The silky prison wasn't all that comfortable, after all.

I picked myself up and dusted the rest of the silky strands off of my coat. I really need to take a bath after this. While I was doing this, Gel gave Strawberry a couple of Pecha Berries and Cheri Berries. She soon came to, having recovered from the poison the Dewpiders injected her with. I don't know why I wasn't injected, though. I guess I'm sort of lucky, then, in a way.

Kol, having shaken Litwick awake from where he had fallen unconscious (not that I knew it at the time, I just thought he was lying on the ground), gathered all seven of us. He motioned toward the Staircase in the corner. "Let's go to the next floor".

I, though, decided to put my foot down. "No, I'm tired, and I can't go on anymore. Can't we just take a rest?"

Kol shook his head. "No - if we stay on a floor too long, we'll get Captured."

At this point, I had enough. While Strawberry had explained a lot with her explanation, she hadn't covered everything, it seems. "What does that even mean?"

"The Mystery Dungeon will hold you captive. Once you get Captured, the Staircases stop working." He explained. "The Staircases temporarily remove the hold Mystery Dungeons hold over you. We have to keep going, even if we're exhausted to the bone. Once we get out, we can all rest." He motioned to the Staircase again "Let's go!" he said more urgently.

I didn't want to argue anymore, and I honestly saw no point, so I went with the others. We went in a different order on the Staircase this time - First it was Rokka, followed by Peng. Then Litwick went on the Staircase, Strawberry following soon after. After Gel went to the next floor using the Staircase, I climbed on, ready to take on the next floor and get out of this wretched Mystery Dungeon.

(Glacia - Great Plains)

When I stepped on the Staircase, I immediately felt different. The feeling of being in a pool of water disappeared, and I now realize that the in-the-pool feeling was due to being inside a Mystery Dungeon.

I tumbled through what felt like grass. I held my head up, hoping what I was thinking was true. A late afternoon sky appeared above me, and I knew that we had finally escaped the Mystery Dungeon.

I quickly looked around for the others. I found them a little off to the right, Peng, Rokka, and Gel looking amused while Litwick and Strawberry righted themselves.

There was a flash of light behind me, and I twisted around to see Kol flop out of the air. After landing on his paws, he quickly took a look around, and then smiled. "Nice job, team! We cleared the Mystery Dungeon."

"Now can we rest?" I asked, tired beyond all belief.

Kol shook his head. "No, Glacia, unless you want to sleep on the ground. It's late in the afternoon, but not night yet. Right now we're going to make a campsite for the night. We'll make the campsite next to Chimodzi Forest - we'll reach Jeden City in the morning, it's not too far from here."

Not wanting to sleep on the ground, I acquiesced.

After half an hour of walking, which mainly consisted of groans, moans, and the sun falling down in the sky, we reached the edge of what Kol had said was Chimodzi Forest. Soon enough, we began building our campsite. I won't bore you with the process of creating a campsite, because it's long, tedious process involving lots of wood. Lots and lots of wood.

Eventually, the sun came down, and Kol had Litwick light us a fire. He and Rokka went to hunt us some food while letting Gel take of Strawberry and refreezing Henka, who I had nearly forgotten about. He then told Litwick, Peng and I to build us some tents for the night. We balanced some long sticks against each other and formed a couple tents for the night. As we continued building the tents, I slowly felt my Mystery-Dungeon-induced exhaustion fade away.

That night, as Peng was cooking the roast Zigzagoon, Kol and Rokka began to interrogate Litwick and me, first asking us for our names.

"Well, I'm Princess Glacia VII, of Eon Kingdom."

Rokka snorted. "What's your actual name?" he asked.

I was confused. What did he mean, my actual name?

"My _name_ ," I stressed," is Glacia VII."

"Yeah, right, and I'm Conkeldius" he scoffed, referencing an old folk tale from one of my favorites books, _The Tales of Eonia_.

I then realized that he didn't believe me, and became enraged. My rage, however, was stopped short by his next couple of words.

"Do you honestly think anyone would believe that you're a princess from two thousand years ago?"

At this point, I came to a horrible realization. The strange landscape, Mystery Dungeons, nobody taking me seriously, nobody knowing who I even am… everything…

And then I remembered something so inconsequential I bet even you forgot about it.

" _Very Well_ " the voice bit out with a tinge of anger in its tone. I ignored the small part of me that was screaming out "Danger!". I had won! I'm going to return to save Dad! " _I will return you to the castle grounds_ ". I then felt a small spike of dread as I heard the voice speak out in an ominous tone. " _Good Luck, Miss Glacia. You'll need it._ "

The voice spoke up again, venom in its voice. " _If you wish to return to the castle grounds, you simply need to step into the Dimensional Hole_ ". The voice then went quiet again.

Castle Grounds… If I'm right...

"What year is it?" I ask hurriedly, yet softly.

Rokka scoffed, but Kol shook his, amused, and answered.

"2023 P.A.," he stated matter-of-factly.

I snapped at him, annoyed. "In A.F. years!"

"A.F.? You mean the system before P.A.?" Kol asked.

"YES!" I shout at him.

Kol takes a minute to think about it, while Rokka stares at me with annoyance and contempt in his gaze while Litwick looks at me with confusion. Eventually, he answers.

"3333 A.F." he finally ventured.

Castle Grounds… Oh no…

… I've read about it, but…

… it's Time Travel, isn't it…

… oh ****.

At this point, I zone out, and most of the rest of the interrogation flows around my ears like water. I finally recollect myself to hear that Kol has given Litwick until tomorrow morning to come up with a name for himself so that he can make a report or something like that.

I don't pay much attention to the roast Zigzagoon. My mind is on other matters, anyway.

Eventually, we all retire for the night. Gel and Strawberry head to their own tent so that Gel can take care of Strawberry, while Rokka and Kol sleep in their own tent. Peng, Litwick and I get our own tent, the biggest one as well. At this point, the lack of a toothbrush doesn't even register.

I fall asleep for a couple of hours. My dreams are filled with nightmarish visions of Dark Types, visions of horrifying faces smiling and snarling at me, followed by Rokka whispering poisonous words at me, crooning in my ear. I then hear shrill laughter, followed by what I can only interpret as a clock going backward.

I wake up with a start, sweat pouring down my body. I shake myself, trying to get the nightmares out of my tortured head.

"Glacia?"

Oh, it looks like Litwick is still awake as well.

"Yeah, I'm awake" I whisper with a hoarse throat.

"Nightmare?" he asks.

"... I guess you can say that." I offer.

The tent is silent for a time. I can hear Kricketot chirping outside in Chimodzi Forest.

"... are you an actual princess?" he asks. I snort.

"I am, but I don't think anyone will believe that a princess from two thousand years ago has time-traveled to the future," I say bitterly.

"Oh," Litwick says in a small voice. Then, in a voice so faint I can barely hear it. "But I do."

At this point, something strange touches my heart.

"... Do you want to go back? Back to the past?" He asks tentatively.

My answer is obvious, yet surprising. "Yes." I say with confidence I didn't know I had "I want to change Time. I want to fix the world."

Where… did _that_ come from?

"...help…" Litwick mumbles something.

"What?"

Litwick clears his throat. " I, uh, said, can I help you?"

At this point, I was completely floored.

Litwick hurriedly explained. "I, um, have amnesia. I don't really have anywhere to go or have any sort of meaning in life. Can I, uh, help you with yours?" he finished with a high-pitched question.

My answer was slow and deliberate. I eventually decided that no, even though I would appreciate his help, this was something a hero did - and a hero did heroic things alone.

Yet, when I opened my mouth to deny him, I found that voice became stuck, as if my entire body was rebelling against the idea of refuting the one person that believed in me, the one person who, essentially, just swore loyalty to me.

It's not really surprising what I did next.

"... yes." I answered, the word sounding strange yet comfortable in my voice box. Litwick's glimmering eyes of happiness and his radiant smile set my answer in stone, and I resigned myself to my helper.

… why am I acting like this is a bad thing, again?

"Thank you!" he exclaimed. Strange, though. I, technically, should be the one thanking him, not the other way around.

Desperate to take control of the situation, I give Litwick a command. "If you wish to help me, though, you need a name."

Litwick nodded, and then sat in a thinking pose.

I began to think as well. What would be a good name? It would have to describe Litwick well, after all.

Then memories of Litwick began to appear in my mind. Images of Litwick burning through Henka's ropes, of Litwick fighting through Zubats and Geodudes, of Litwick facing an Araquanid - all these images flowed through my mind.

The smaller ball moved in to protect me. A small ethereal shield popped into existence as the smaller ball struggled to hold the attack of the larger ball back. Streams of energy flowed around us both as I watched the smaller ball protect me.

Then the attack stopped, and not a moment too soon, for our shield had finally cracked, the second ball shaking in its hovering.

" _Tom…"_ the first voice whispered, its voice reduced to its previous levels. _"Of Course… you said it yourself that you help those you consider your friends. You had sensed the Eevee since the very beginning."_ The voice sighed. _"What a nightmare."_

I ventured out a name, sounding strange in my head, but sounding natural on my tongue. "... Tom. That's your name."

Tom, thought about it for a second, then nodded. "...yeah. I kind of like that name." He then nodded to himself. "Tom. That's my name." He then smiled at me. "Thanks, Glacia."

I nodded. "No pro… no pro…" Suddenly I felt really sleepy. "Goo… Good night," I yawn, falling into a pleasant, yet dreamless sleep.


	4. 4 - A Prisoner's Slip

(Tom - Great Plains)

"... Tom. That's your name." Glacia said after a while.

Tom… you know, that sounds vaguely familiar, as if I've heard that name before now. Well, either way, it sounds like a good name either way.

"...yeah. I kind of like that name." I nodded, feeling somewhat giddy inside. Finally, I have a name. I was a little worried about what I was going to tell Kol tomorrow morning, but I don't have to worry about that anymore. I nodded, happy and joyful.

"Tom. That's my name." I smiled. "Thanks, Glacia."

Glacia nodded, her eyes drooping. She still must be really tired - I could tell that the day's events were tiring on her. Strange, though - I don't feel particularly tired as well. In fact, once the sun set, I felt much stronger and moved even faster than I did in the Mystery Dungeon.

"No pro… no pro…" Glacia began swaying. "Goo… Good night." She yawned, then collapsed into her bed.

… Well, now what?

I was prepared to spend the entire night thinking of a name for myself to tell Kol. But now that Glacia has named me and I have a purpose in life again - helping Glacia with hers - I have literally nothing to do.

I decided to step outside because hanging around in the tent was beginning to chafe on me. Rokka was standing outside, on guard. The crocodile was sitting next to the fire, looking into Chimodzi Forest, apparently bored out of his mind (judging by his scowl). I (who was also bored out of my mind) decided to commiserate with him.

"... are you as bored as I am?"

Rokka turned to me, his scowl deepening, and looked me in the eyes, beetle black eyes to… whatever my eyes looked like. "Litwick. Shut up, or go to bed."

I decided not to speak again.

Rokka kept looking off into the distance of the open and grassy plains, while I was just looking into the deep and dark forest. I'm pretty sure that Rokka was upset about something, but I wasn't going to upset the beehive, so I didn't bother asking about it.

Say… speaking of bees, where are all of the animals, anyway. I mean, is this world filled with Pokemon, and only Pokemon? What about all of the trees and grass and other plants? What does this all mean? Why am I asking all of these questions? Was that question itself too cliché?

Rokka got up and stretched. "Well, Litwick, I'm going to go and take a nap. It's been a long day and unlike you, I didn't get the chance to nap off a couple of hours in captivity. Later, candle." He waved at me, smirking in the orange glow of the fire.

I hate that guy… well, I don't, he just really annoys me sometimes.

He walked off to Peng and Glacia's tent and went inside for a second. I felt a brief urge to rush to the tent to make sure Peng and Glacia were alright, but I quashed it after a second of wrestling with it. After all, Rokka wouldn't do anything to them, right? Right?

Well, even if I don't hate Rokka, I also don't trust him. He gives off a strange dark vibe, making me feel like he's always plotting something. Given the fact that the last time we followed Rokka's "advice", we got ambushed by the blue bats and rock monsters, I think my fear is relatively well-founded.

Well, in the present, my fear was unfounded, as soon enough Peng came out of the tent, her eyes bleary and unfocused. Rokka came out soon after and headed to Kol's tent. Before he entered the tent, though, he turned to Peng, smirked, and said "Good Night, Pengy. Ta-ta."

Oh no.

In the light of the fire, Peng's claws began to glow a metallic sheen, and she began to make a strange sound. I don't believe I've ever heard it before, because it sounds like the cross of a bird shriek, a goose, and a trumpet. Impossible to understand if you've never heard of it before. She headed toward Rokka, taking slow but heavy step steps forward.

Rokka, with a smidgen of common sense, quickly ran into the tent he shared with Kol. Peng took a couple of more steps forward, and I was a little worried a fight was going to break out in the middle of the night, but I needn't worried, because Peng soon caught herself. She shook her head a couple of times, then headed back toward where I was, a displeased expression plastered across her face.

"That idiot", she mumbled under her breath, with what appeared to be a small smile on her face. Once she noticed I was looking, though, she snarled at me. "What are you looking at?"

"Uhh…" Let's just say I was not a maestro with words.

She gave out a sigh. "Forget it."

It was silent for a small time in the campsite.

"... so what was that about?" I was hoping that she would be a little more chatty than Rokka was.

She looked at me and gave me a pensive look for a couple of seconds. I felt I was being inspected by a microscope as she looked at me.

She then gave out a huff. "Alright, I'll tell you", she said in a small, quiet voice. "Rokka and I have a love-hate relationship going on here - well, at least on my end. On one hand, he is a colossal prick with an aptitude for annoying and insulting everyone in the immediate vicinity. On the other hand, he is a valued member of the team and I really like his work ethic once he gets going. So yeah, I don't know what to think of him. I mean, he is nice sometimes, but he is mean and caustic all the other times. And…"

Peng kept on rambling, and I politely listened the entire time - nobody could say that I didn't have listening stamina, after this. She kept going on and on and on, and I didn't have the heart to tell her that I wasn't listening to her. She went on like that for ten more minutes, which definitely tested my patience, but eventually, she got around to finish.

"... so you see, Litwick, I am so confused on how to deal with the idiotically stupidly sarcastically cheerful lug."

"... oh." I said in a small voice because what else was I supposed to say?

We sat in a companionable silence for what seemed like a long time, but was only five more minutes, before Peng decided to break the silence again. She was much more talkative than Rokka was, that's for sure.

"So, Litwick, I overheard Kol and Rokka's conversation with you. Have you decided on a name yet?"

"Yeah, my name's Tom now". Well, that felt weird to say. Not the Tom bit, no, I'm talking about the "My name is _ now" as if I had a name before.

"Tom. Tom. Tom" She sounded out. "A strange name, but what that somehow fits you." She nodded. "Alright Tom, what are your favorite Berries. I, personally, like Wacan and Rindo Berries."

… Amnesia was going to be a harder problem than I thought it would be.

"Uh… what is a Berry?" I ask almost timidly.

She stared at me for a couple of seconds, and I felt a little nervous.

"Tom, have you only ever eaten meat and people's souls?" She asked.

"W-what? I don't think I've ever eaten someone's soul before." Then a scary thought ran through my head. " Well, I might have, but I don't remember it"

She looked bemused for a second, which looked a little funny on her penguin face. Then she gasped and looked at me with what looked to be a form of pity in her eyes. Somehow, I felt even more uncomfortable.

"Ah, right, you have amnesia, Tom. Your preference for berries is probably gone." Along with everything else, true.

It was quiet in the campsite for a while after that. It seems to me that Peng realized her conversational blunders, and decided not to initiate any more conversations - that duty was now left up to me.

Of course, with my amnesia and all, I didn't really have any ideas for conversations. I knew nothing about the world, after all. How can I talk about something I know nothing about?

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OH YEAH!

"Hey, Peng," I asked casually, "Why can I throw flames around?"

She looked at me oddly. "Because you're a Litwick, and that's what Litwicks do." She seemed confused. Then she looked mortified. "Tom, please tell me you at least knew how to use your flames before today."

"... I didn't know how to even walk before today." I reminded her.

She winced. "Oh, dear… What do you know?"

Well, that was a tough question. "I don't know what I know, Peng"

She looked confused "Huh?"

… on second thought, that wasn't the clearest answer I could have given her. "I know how to talk and how to think and stuff like that," I tried to explain, "I just don't know anything about Pokemon".

She looked absolutely gobsmacked at that, which I thought was understandable. From what I can tell, Pokemon are the people of this world - if, in my old world, I said I didn't know anything about humanity, I would get, at the very least, incredibly strange looks. At most, they would lock me in an insane asylum. I don't exactly remember what an insane asylum is, but I know it's bad.

She, after a couple of long, painful seconds, collected herself. "Y-you don't know anything about Pokemon?" She whispered to me hoarsely.

Feeling bad, I nodded. "Yeah, I don't know anything about Pokemon. Talking and thinking were the only things I kept from before my memories were erased. I know nothing about Pokemon." I admitted.

She looked at me with an overwhelming pity flickering in her eyes. The pity was annoying me for some reason, even though I knew it was justified in this case.

"Tom, I'm so sorry." She told me hearteningly. Then a powerful and steely look entered her eyes. "Alright, Tom, I'm going to teach you the basics of Pokemon tonight. You will not leave this campsite without knowing what Types, Moves, and Abilities are." She nodded to herself, then sighed. "I have a lot of work cut out for me, huh."

"Yep." That wasn't a secret to either of us.

She shook her head. "Alright, then, let's get started. First of all, Tom, do you know what Types are?"

"No."

"Figures. Types are a little hard to explain. They're essentially an element we are aligned with," Peng began to teach.

"'Aligned with'? What does that mean?" I was getting really into this learning session with Peng.

She began to explain. "When I say aligned with, I mean connected to. You can use that element and its power. You, for instance, are connected to Fire, which is how you can throw your flames around and light your wick on fire."

Ah, so my connection to Fire allows me to my pyrokinesis. "It sounds like you would want as many types as possible, so you can use as many elements as possible," I remarked.

Peng laughed. "No, that's not how types work. I was talking about the typing of Moves. Moves are basically things that a Pokemon can do like shoot bubbles, cloak themselves in water, turn themselves metallic" she lifted a shining claw for emphasis " throw fire and ice around, discharge electricity, etc."

"Like using a Shadow Ball, right?" I asked.

Peng nodded. "Right, Shadow Ball is a move - a Ghost type move to be exact."

"Ghost type"

She snickered. "All right, I'll explain the types to you. There is Fire" she pointed at me, "Water" she pointed at her herself "Electricity" she pointed to the tent where Kol and Rokka where sleeping, "Grass, Bug, Poison, Ice", she pointed to where Gel and Strawberry were sleeping "Fairy, Dragon, Rock, Flying, Fighting, Psychic, Steel," she pointed to one of her steely fins "Ground, Dark" she pointed to where Kol and Rokka were sleeping again. "Ghost" she pointed at me again, "and Normal", she pointed to our tent, probably gesturing to Glacia.

"...uh… what?"

She sighed and repeated herself

"Fire, Water, Electricity, Grass, Bug, Poison, Ice, Fairy, Dragon, Rock, Flying, Fighting, Psychic, Steel, Ground, Dark, Ghost, and Normal. 18 in total. Every single sentient Pokemon knows about these types, and you have to know them too if you want anyone to take you seriously."

I gulped. "Got it"

She looked at me with a stern look. "Repeat them back to me."

"Uhh… Fire" I started off, remembering myself first and foremost. "Water and Steel," I said, looking at Peng, remembering her and the shiny fins. I looked at the tents "Electricity, Dark, Ice, Normal, Ghost" I cast around in my mind for the pokemon I remembered from earlier today "Dragon, Rock, Flying, and Bug" I ended, remembering no others. I quickly tallied all the Types I remembered… dang, only got twelve out of eighteen.

Peng gave me a look, "Given that you probably knew all of this before your memories were erased, I thought you would be learning this faster. You got eleven out of eighteen types right, Tom."

Eleven? "I thought I got twelve right, not eleven," I asked in a somewhat accusatory tone.

She shook her head. "This is a technicality but it's not Electricity, it's Electric" she explained. Oh come on, they're three letters apart, and how was I supposed to know that it was called the Electric when she used nothing but "Electricity" to explain it.

Seeing my annoyed face, she sighed. "You missed Grass, Poison, Fighting, Ground, Psychic, and Fairy. Repeat them after me - Grass, Poison, Fighting, Ground, Psychic, and Fairy."

" Grass, Poison, Fighting, Ground, Psychic, and Fairy" I tonelessly recited after her.

She nodded. "Good". She then went into detail with each Type. Fire, Water, Dragon, Poison, Steel, Ice, Bug, and Rock were fairly self-explanatory. I was a little confused with the other types, though.

"Aren't all types used for fighting?"

"Yes, but Fighting types use their bodies, in a form of martial arts. If you see a Pokemon punching or kicking, it's usually a Fighting type."

"What is a Fairy Type?"

"The type for everything cute and cuddly" She sounded fairly annoyed at that.

"Grass?" I asked questioningly.

At this point, she let out a scream of frustration. I decided to ask her about that later.

"How are Ghost, Flying, Fighting, Bug, Steel, Fairy, Poison, and "Normal" elements?"

She groaned "Enough with the questions, I'm sure Gel will be happy to answer your questions later, but we need to get on with this" She let out a small yawn "Ugh… I'm getting tired. I'll explain Abilities quickly, and then I'll get Gel to do my shift. Abilities are," she yawned again, a little louder this time "special things that a Pokemon automatically does … to…" she then yawned and closed her eyes. This time, she didn't say anything else.

"... Peng… Peng… Peng?" I tried shaking her awake. She didn't even twitch a muscle, apparently knocked out beyond belief.

"She won't be waking up, Litwick. None of them will." That feminine voice sounded familiar, yet unfamiliar at the same time. I turned around to see a strange creature with roses for hands - sorry, Pokemon - shaking her hands around, spreading a strange green and purple dust around the campsite and into the tents. "In fact, they won't be waking up, ever." The rose Pokemon glowed white and started to grow. I recognized the form the Pokemon was turning into, and paled.

A Dragonite looked out at me and gave a sinister grin. "Remember me? It's your good old friend Henka." He gave off a small smile. "For being able to escape for me and stay conscious through my Powders, I'll give you a small prize." He opened his wings "You can stay and suck up their life energy without worrying because they're going to die anyway. Have Fun!" Henka opened his wings and took off, laughing all the while.

I, desperate to do _something_ to stop him, flung a couple of measly flames at him. Unfortunately, my aim wasn't that good, and I missed him by a couple of feet. He shot off, laughing his head off as the embers of fire I had released flew into the dry, grassy field, catching the entire field on fire.

At this point, Henka had escaped, my friends were dying, and we were surrounded on all sides by a raging inferno. By all means, I should have panicked, running around like a headless chicken on steroids. Yet, I found myself extremely calm, as if I was completely safe and nothing bad was going to happen to me.

Looking at the problems, I knew there was nothing I could do about Henka - he was completely out of my reach, out of anyone's reach at this point, if the small orange speck in the sky has to say anything about it.

That left the other two problems - the raging wildfire and my dying friends. I can't do anything about the fire by myself - I have a feeling that trying to telepathically suppress the fire would be a waste of time, and I have no other methods of suppressing a fire of this magnitude.

I need water (which felt wrong in my head, for some reason) and lots of it (which felt even more wrong).

Water, water, water…

Peng! I just remembered she pointed to herself when she mentioned the Water Type. If she can summon water, she'll be able to somewhat control this fire.

I quickly run over to Peng and try to wake her up - but it's no use. The powder that Henka had spread onto her had knocked her out completely, and I could tell that she wasn't going to wake up for a long time.

Then she coughed up purplish blood.

I stared at it for a little bit, then realized that Peng was dying and in no shape to put out any fires whatsoever. The problem was, everyone else was also affected by the powder, except for me. I couldn't wake them up normally - that was impossible, I could already tell. I needed some way to force them to wake up…

… Nothing - I can't think of anything. I cursed my amnesia once again because I know literally nothing to stop them from dying.

Peng coughed again, a little bit more blood coming out this time. I felt the vestiges of true panic begin to wash over me, the feeling of powerlessness crawling through my veins as I watched Peng begin die in front of me.

They'regoingtodieThey'regoingtodieThey'regoingtodieThey'regoingtodieTHEY'REGOINGTODIETHEY'REGOINGTODIETHEY'REGOINGTODIETHEY'REGOINGTODIE!

Peng…

Rokka…

Kol…

Gel…

Strawberry…

Glacia…

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Waitwaitwait, Strawberry, Something is niggling about in the back of my mind, some way to wake someone up, but staring into the flames, I can't remember how…

… FLAMES! I woke up Strawberry with Flames when we were in captivity in Henka's cave. I might be able to wake her up again if I use flames again.

I move as fast as lightning to Gel and Strawberry's tent and turn on my Light full blast.

While Gel's face is marred by a small frown as he tosses and turns in a what looks like to be a nightmare, Strawberry is moving like there are ants wriggling all over her, like she's trying to escape from something that is attacking her but was unable.

This wasn't working fast enough. I could feel the heat from the wildfire in the plains outside grow steadily hotter and hotter, and I knew that if Strawberry didn't wake up soon we would be unable to do anything.

So I did the smartest and dumbest thing I could ever do. I flared up my light to the brightest it could go and shouted, directly in Strawberry's ear, "WAKE UP!"

That did the trick.

Strawberry sat up bolt right, her eyes as wide as they can go, and SCREAMED!

Her scream was so loud that I imagine you could hear it for miles. It rang shrilly in my ears, piercing my thought processes and making me instinctively turn off my Light.

Gel woke up with a start, the strange powder on top of him falling off. Judging from his gaping reaction, he was probably not expecting to be woken up in the middle of the night.

I decided to cut to the chase "Henka's escaped, I accidentally started a wildfire, and he covered everyone in a strange powder".

Gel's eyes widened when I said 'Powder'. "What do you mean, 'Powder'"

"He sprinkled a purple and green powder on everyone." I hurriedly explained. "We need to get rid of it - Peng is coughing up blood."

Gel began to let out some choice words I will not repeat for the sanctity of your ears, interspersed with the occasional burp of purple liquid.

Gel turned to me after ten or so seconds of this. "We've wasted enough time. Go into Kol and Rokka's tent and get some Pecha and Chesto Berries and feed them to everyone." He then ran outside. "I'll hold off the wildfire for now." He began shooting off a stream of white energy that froze whatever it touched. Of course, the fire already melted some of the ice, but it helped anyway.

I moved after him, panting and trying to shout. "I don't know what Pecha Berries and Chesto Berries look like!"

He cursed again. "The pink and purple round fruits in the bag, Litwick. Now!"

I moved like the demons of hell were on my tail to the tent, and quickly climbed inside. Kol and Rokka were both coughing up their blood and shaking violently in their slumber.

I quickly found the bag, which was lying next to Kol, and threw it upside-down to reveal its contents. A paper map fell on the floor, as well as a couple of strange looking seeds, some gelatinous things, and a couple of squished fruits. The fruits were red, blue, cyan, yellow, pink, and purple. I gathered as many pink and purple berries I could find, then quickly fed a couple to Kol and Rokka.

Their eyes shot open.

"Litwick, what is happening?" Kol's voice was calm, yet deadly.

I gave them the condensed version. "Henka escaped, I accidentally started a wildfire, everyone's under a forced sleep and coughing up blood"

They both began to curse, and for a brief second, I wondered if this was their natural response to this kind of hardship. I hurriedly continued "Gel told me to feed you these berries - I managed to wake you up with them, and stop you from coughing up blood."

"What about the others?" Kol hurried on.

My eyes widened, as I remembered. "The Others!" I quickly took as many berries as I could carry and ran over to where Peng was still dying and Gel was holding back the wildfire. I quickly popped a pink and purple berry into Peng's mouth and watched as her previously pale penguin-like complexion turned back into her normal penguin-like complexion. Then her eyes snapped open. "Wha…?"

I, however, didn't stick around like last time. I handed her a pink and purple berry "Give these to Gel, NOW!" I then took the bag and ran over to Strawberry's tent, which was the closest to where Peng was lying down and gave her two of the remaining berries. She soon stopped breathing out purple fumes, but still cried as much as loud as ever. I, however, didn't have the time for this - Glacia still needed me.

I ran as fast as the wind to where Glacia was previously sleeping. She was lying there in a small puddle of blood, breathing out small purple fumes every second in her sleep. I shoved the berries into her mouth, and I felt a wave of relief wash over me when her breath turned clear again and her eyes snapped open.

Then, exhausted at last, I fell asleep.

* * *

(Glacia - A Dream)

I nodded. "No pro… no pro…" Suddenly I felt really sleepy. "Goo… Good night," I yawn, falling into a pleasant, yet dreamless sleep…

… well, it was dreamless for the first hour or so, anyway.

My sleep was calm, peaceful, and serene - just like it usually was. Somehow, during my dreamless sleep, I was able to remember that this is what dreaming usually felt like for me, that this whole mess with time travel and revolutions started with a wake-up from a nightmare.

Dreamless sleep is better than dreams and nightmares any day of the week, and I won't be forced to think otherwise.

Of course, that state of blissful unconsciousness had to be torn away from me by the birth of a new dream - or should I say nightmare.

It started off well, all things considered. I was lying next to my pool in the castle, reading _The Tales of Eonia_ , looking at the stories of the great heroes.

Stories like that of the Great Aggronian, whose feats in naixe-shaking rivaled Groudon's so much so that Groudon himself rose out of the Great Crevice to bury the Aggronian.

Stories like that of Gardevinia, whose feats of bravery, kindness, and psychic prowess had her be knighted by Cresselia and the Spirit Trio.

Stories like that of the Great Dragon Zentairym, whose unending loyalty tore him apart through the machinations of a malicious and alien creature.

Stories like that of the Phantom Sableye, the thieving demon that had the power to steal anything that fell within the grasp of its crystalline eye.

Stories like that of the Temporal Grovyle and the Lustrous Celebi, who had traveled millennia into the past to save Time itself (for some reason, I paid special attention this one - I had the strange feeling the story would come in useful, or at least relevant, at one point in time or another. I don't know why, though).

I kept on reading through all of the tales, enjoying the warm breeze in my fur as I flipped through the pages. Of course, once or twice the breeze flipped a page or two, but it was a small concern, nothing to be worried about.

Then the wind picked up, and it became harder and harder to stay on only one page. To stop this, I held out one of my paws onto the page, so that it wouldn't flip. The wind, however, wouldn't slow down, and only got stronger and stronger. I felt my hand slipping on the page before my hand was forced of off the page by the great gale and the book's pages began to flip madly. At this point, my eyes were watering due to the pure force of the wind, and to prevent my eyes from drying out, I was forced to close them. I remained in the powerful throes of the gust for an indeterminate amount of time, my fur being battered and bludgeoned against by the pure force of the wind.

Suddenly, the wind began to dramatically slow down, and within three seconds the potent hurricane that had been attacking me died down to what it was before - a simple breeze.

I opened my eyes. Thankfully, the pond I was lying next to wasn't damaged at all - no trees were knocked over, and no grass uprooted. Looking back on it, the wind wasn't that bad - it was just extremely distracting.

My book had flown across the pond in the hurricane winds so I went around the pond to go and retrieve it so that I could continue reading _The Tales of Eonia_. My book was spread out in the grass, the binding face-up. I flipped the book up so I could see what legend it had landed on.

Across the heading of the page the book had landed on sat a single word: _Conkeldius_.

My breath hitched, and a memory flew in my mind.

 _I was confused. What did he mean, my actual name?_

" _My_ name _," I stressed," is Glacia VII."_

" _Yeah, right, and I'm Conkeldius" he scoffed, referencing an old folk tale from one of my favorite books,_ The Tales of Eonia.

 _I then realized that he didn't believe me, and became enraged. My rage, however, was stopped short by his next couple of words._

" _Do you honestly think anyone would believe that you're a princess from two thousand years ago?"_

I began to shake, uncontrollably. The words on the page were taunting me, reminding me of what I had lost.

Then, as if Kyogre herself had decided to turn on me, my pool began to swell in size, growing past the limits of the pool, I, gaining control of my shaking, stepped back with my copy of _The Tales of Eonia_.

The tides of the pool, however, wouldn't be stopped. It began to continuously grow in size, enlarging rapidly. I began to hear Rokka's cruel and remorseless laughter ring through the clearing as the pool engorged more and more, flooding the clearing.

I watched, with tears in my eyes, as the water of the pool bled all of the ink off of the pages, somehow shriveling my book under my very eyes. I began to paddle in the three-foot-deep water, as Rokka's voice split into two distinct voice's, one of them being the deep baritone of Henka and the other the shrill shriek of the Araquanid.

Then, as the water's level skyrocketed, it began to change. The water took on a deep purple hue and turned from its watery consistency to become thicker and more viscous. I felt the water itself attacking me as if it was acid, burning me and my fur away. Soon, unable to support myself in the poisoned acid-water anymore, my head fell into the poison, the wicked laughter not dampened in the slightest.

Inside the toxic ocean, I saw a glowing orb. Dying, I decided that it was perhaps my only chance at survival. Inside was a glowing purple flame, which repelled all of the poison around it. I dived into the orb, praying with all of my life.

I felt a warm and sticky fluid surround me, before jerking me up, up past the surface of the water, rising faster than the swelling of the toxic pool could ever hope to achieve. The sounds of laughter muted below me as, trapped as I was in the orb, I was free.

* * *

(Glacia - Great Plains)

My eyes snap open, my body feeling well rested. Ah, this feels… good?

I then realize what exactly happened. Around me, there is a smell of smoke and wax, with a noxious smell hanging around me. I wrinkled my nose as the rancid odor pervaded my sense of smell, feeling an urge to vomit up my dinner.

"Ugh, what just… what just happened?" I ask myself in the middle of the air, expecting, and getting, no response. Next to me lay Tom, who was fast asleep in his bed, his wax dotted with green and purple particles. I saw, more than felt, the particles on my own fur as well. The outside of the tent we were in was bright for some reason, yet I couldn't escape the strange feeling that it wasn't morning yet.

Then I heard the crackle of flame, and I decided that the inside of the wooden tent wasn't the best place to remain. Tom would be fine - he was a Litwick, after all.

I escaped into the open air of the campsite, only to see the tent, which for some reason was of fire, collapse. I felt a smidgen of guilt as I knew that Tom was still in there, but then I concerned myself with other matters.

Surrounding the campsite was a ring of wildfire. Peng and Gel were fighting it off with Water Pulses and Ice Beams, though Gel was looking a lot more like Strawberry than he usually did, as he was tinted purple. Peng, noticing this, shouted at Gel "Go get some of the berries, Gel! You're still poisoned!" Poisoned? What happened while I was asleep? Before I fell asleep, there was nothing wrong with the campsite, and now there's fire everywhere, Gel is apparently poisoned even though there is literally nothing that could have caused it, and there are strange purple and green particles lying everywhere!

I quickly scurried up to Peng who was still shooting off Water Pulses like there was no tomorrow. The Pulses, which were orbs of condensed water that spread out on ripples upon impact, were slowing the fire down and even pushing it back as they hit, but seeing as the entire field was on fire, the water was disappearing a such an alarming rate that I realized that Peng was fighting a losing battle.

Rokka was on the other side of the camp, shaking the ground with powerful stomps. Every time he stamped his feet on the ground, it would upend itself, causing the fire to be smothered under a blanket of dirt. Rokka was having much more success with his firefighting for some reason - then again, he was burying all of the plants that were catching on fire with his Ground Type Powers.

Kol, however, was nowhere to be found. He had disappeared completely - I couldn't smell him at all, and I was a little worried for him. The only other person unaccounted for is Strawberry - although that was quickly put to rest once I heard her screams as I saw her run around in the clearing, clearly panicked. Let's see now, everyone is accounted for - Tom!

The guilt of leaving him in the burning wooden tents began to multiply, as I quickly remembered that Tom, even as a Fire Type, wouldn't be uninjured by the falling wooden logs that compromised our tents. I quickly ran over to our tent and tried to find Tom, but he was buried under a pile of logs. I decided that a move would help in this case, and I began to prepare a Shadow Ball. As I was preparing the Shadow Ball, the guilt in me began to skyrocket for some reason, and I almost lost control of it. Luckily, I managed to hold on to the ghostly power (which over the past couple of days I really have been forced to rely on) and fired it at the pile of wooden logs.

Once the Shadow Ball contacted the pile of logs, it detonated, sending wooden shrapnel flying everywhere. The wooden splinters pierced me in a couple of uncomfortable places, and I really felt the sting - it felt like getting hit by one of Dad's grass type attacks, except not as bad.

I quickly shook off the splinters and got back to work at the pile of wooden logs. A great deal of the logs that Peng, Tom, and I had used to build the tent was now broken and in pieces, but there was still plenty of logs everywhere. I charged up another Shadow Ball and fired it at the remaining logs. There was another great explosion, except this time I was prepared for the wooden shrapnel and managed to dodge all of it successfully.

After the second Shadow Ball detonated, I looked at the pile of wooden logs. It was now completely decimated - and so was Tom, now that I could get a good look at him. Well, decimated wasn't quite the right word for what had happened - there were still some logs here and there, but they were nowhere near as prevalent as they needed to be a hindrance to me, and Tom wasn't dead by any stretch - he was extremely injured, sure, as wax was everywhere, but I could somehow tell he was still alive.

I then heard a groan from him, which told me he was going to be alright - he usually groaned.

Of course, I was much more diligent and cautious than that - Sharon made sure of that (GLACIA, DON'T TOUCH THE TORC- GLACIA, DON'T TOUCH THE STOV- GLACIA, STOP TOUCHING EVERYTHING YOU SEE!). I quickly dug an Oran Berry out of the pouch Tom had brought with him and shoved it into his mouth. As he chewed on the berry, I could see his wax regain consistency, and Tom soon got to his feet on shaky steps. I could tell he was in pain because he somehow had burns on his face even though Litwicks don't get burnt.

"Ugh… Glacia… everything hurts…" Tom began to whine. I frowned a little bit - while I could tell that Tom was clearly in a lot of pain, I wish he wouldn't complain so much - I, for instance, never complain.

"Please don't complain," I complained.

Tom just kept on groaning.

Gel came out of the forest he had run into earlier. I guess since the Berries were with Tom he had to go find his own berries for his poisoning. He looked much, much better without the purple pallor he had ten minutes ago.

Speaking of poisoning…

I quickly took a hold of Tom and began shaking him back and forth, wincing a little bit as some loose wax was spilled all over my fur. I quickly wiped it off and began asking Tom some very, very complicated questions.

" _What. Happened?_ "

"I would like to know that as well, Litwick." Kol's deep voice resounded behind me. I whipped around to find the Luxio standing cross behind me, and that was saying something.

Once Tom was able to visibly find his bearings from the shaking I had given him and the amount of damage he took, he answered in slow and halting words. "...H-Henka… escaped…" he managed to stutter out. Tom then fell faint again, the pain too much for him - and at this point, we had bigger problems.

Kol gained an unholy amount of fury in his eyes and electricity began to crackle off of him as he roared a terrifying roar. Everyone in the campsite - and I mean _everyone_ , including the unconscious Tom - was forced to cover their ears because Kol's roar was as loud as a thunderclap and roughly ten times scarier. I unconsciously took a couple of steps back as Kol began to prowl around, looking much more intimidating than usual. I can honestly tell why Kol is the leader of their team - he certainly had the power to back it up.

Kol quickly turned to Peng, who had just finished putting out the wildfire with Gel and Rokka.

" _What happened?_ " He asked Peng, using the exact same question I had used to interrogate Tom - except that somehow there was an infinitely higher amount of urgency and necessity in his question than there was in mine.

Peng took a couple of deep breaths, calming herself down, and then she spoke with purpose. "Kol, I was talking to Tom earlier tonight, explaining to him the basics of Typing, when I saw a cloud of powdery particles fall from the sky. I thought that it was just ash from the fire, but when it settled I felt a strange sense of déjà vu. I then fell asleep."

Kol cursed again. "Somebody - Henka, most likely - used Sleep Powder on us. Poison Powder too, looking at what's on the ground." In the early light of the morning, he lit up his fur with his electricity and pointed to the ground, which was covered in the green and purple powders - which I now could recognize as Sleep Powder and Poison Powder.

Gel, who was standing off to the side with Rokka, then asked a couple questions. "But then why did he torch the Great Plains, and how did he escape in the first place? Oh, and why was Litwick still conscious?"

Kol shook his head in anger. "That's what I'm trying to figure out, Gel." Kol then began to mutter as he walked around, muttering phrases like "inside Pokemon" and "traitorous candle". I had the strangest feeling he was talking about Tom, but I just couldn't put my finger on why. No, the way that Kol just kept sending Tom's fainted body dark looks did nothing to flame my concerns. Nothing at all.

… I have been using a lot more vulgar language in my thoughts than I have at any time before now, huh.

Rokka barked out a couple of short laughs. "Look, isn't it obvious? The Litwick melted the block of ice Henka was in - how else could he have gotten out. Physically breaking the ice block would have woken everybody in the camp, and none of us were woken by a crash of ice. There's no other way of freeing Henka from the ice cube other than melting it, which only Litwick was capable."

Kol nodded at Rokka's ridiculous theory, but Gel scoffed, the lasting heat from the wildfire clearly making him irritable. "Are you serious, Rokka? This _theory_ of yours is ridiculous," he snapped. "If he _melted_ the ice cube, don't you think the heat would have woken Strawberry and I up? And when would he do it, anyway? If we went by our normal rotation, Peng would have been the next sentry after Litwick, and Peng was knocked out by the Powders, so it had to have been before then."

Kol was frowning, but Rokka was adamant. "Yeah right, he could have done it when I was waking up Pe-"

Peng exploded with anger "That's ********, and you know it Rokka. You woke me within a minute, maximum. How in all of Naixe can you say that Tom managed to melt the ice cube within a minute."

Rokka blinked. "Tom?" he asked, perplexed.

"Tom - Litwick's name. He told me earlier tonight," she explained.

Kol gave out what looked like the first smile I saw from him all morning. "He finally decided, huh."

Rokka scoffed - it was his favorite thing to do after all. "What a stupid name." he mocked, his reptilian face scrunched up. At this point, I felt more than a little annoyed, because everyone other than Peng and Gel, (basically, just Rokka and Kol a little bit) was insulting Tom, and I still felt bad about forgetting about him under the logs for a second. This annoyance has nothing to with the fact that I picked the name "Tom". Nothing at all.

I heard a groan from behind me where Tom was laying on the ground, and all of our heads snapped back to see Tom get up from the ground and shakily right himself. Rokka, as if sensing weakness, prowled over to Tom, grabbed him, and started interrogating him. I began to feel pity for Tom - he was being pokehandled so much today.

Rokka, in a deceptively calm voice to those who haven't known him for at least three seconds, asked Tom a simple question. " _Explain what happened last night_."

Tom froze up a little bit, then began to babble. "AfteryouwenttosleeplastnightPengtaughtmesomereallycoolstuffandIlearnedabouttypesandmovesandthenshefellasleepandHenkacoveredeverythinginsporesandthenIaccidentallyseteverythingonfireandthenIwokeupGelandIwokeupyouandKolandthenIwokeupPengandthenIwokeupGlacia."

Gel gave out a pained sigh. "Slower, Tom."

Tom gave a deep breath, trying to calm down from the death grip Rokka had on him and repeated what he said more slowly. "After you went to sleep last night, Peng taught me some really cool stuff, and I learned about types and moves, and then she fell asleep, and Henka covered everything in spores, and then I accidentally set everything on fire, and then I woke up Gel, and I woke up you and Kol, and then I woke up Peng, and then I woke up Glacia."

I felt a little insulted that I was the last person Tom rescued (he pledged his life to me last night, you know), but I, as gracious as I am, completely understood and therefore felt much better about leaving Tom buried under the logs for a minute or two - he chose his place, he has to learn what it entails. Honestly.

Rokka shook Tom a little more, sending a little bit of wax flying everywhere, then continued a more detailed interrogation. " _Why did you start the forest fire_?" he growled at Tom. As much as I detest Rokka for everything he is (a Dark Type and a *******), he's right on this point - why did Tom start the fire?

"I was t-trying to hit Henka as he was flying away as a Dragonite. I missed and hit the field."

Accident? The wildfire he created was by _accident_?

This time Gel, taking the reins of the interrogation, asked the question. "Why did you wake me up with your flame?"

"I didn't know how." Tom tried to explain, looking like he was in a daze.

"********" Wow, everyone is cursing today - except that it sounds a lot more natural coming from Rokka's mouth than say, mine. "He's lying - he has to be lying"

"He didn't know what Berries are, Rokka, I can confirm that from earlier last night." Peng came to Tom's rescue.

At this point, Kol who looked like he was having enough, decided to step in "Alright, now that all of you have stated the _obvious,_ " he said in an obnoxious tone of voice, which I didn't think that Kol could achieve with his Roar previously, "we can get to the real matter at hand - what we do now."

No one was very forthcoming - I realized that no one knew what to do now that Henka was missing.

At this point, I realized I had been completely silent for the past fifteen minutes and immediately resolved it. "We do what we have been doing". As everyone gave me completely disbelieving looks, I felt a little imbecilic, but I stood my ground on this one.

Kol eventually gave a sigh. "Glacia's right - we still have to head to Jeden City, where our base is. Henka's gone, and out of our reach for the near future. We're going to have to report the mission as a failure." He began walking out of the little circle we had created during the discussions. Once his back was turned on us, he continued. "The bag is under the logs. Hopefully, it hasn't burned yet. If it hasn't we don't have to replace it. Rokka, try to recover it - we'll be waiting"

Rokka's sneer faded, and he gave a respectful nod to Kol before digging himself a tunnel in the ground.

Kol snorted, then continued. "Peng, try to recover the bag from the top. Gel, you go and calm down Strawberry. Try to console her - she'll need it."

Peng and Gel nodded, then proceeded to follow Kol's orders.

Kol turned to Tom and me, and I felt a small chill. Usually, Kol had a kind look in his eyes, but evidently, the escape of Henka brought out Kol's unforgiving side.

"You two, stay here and do nothing. You two have troubled and worried us enough as it is. Don't make any more trouble for us right now."

Tom nodded, trembling, and I nodded too - I'm not going to argue with Kol when he looked like that.

So there Tom and I sat, the wind of the early morning cold on our backs.

It didn't take very long for the clearly experienced team to do their jobs. Rokka managed to find the bag before Peng did and gloated it in her face, Gel tried to calm Strawberry down and failed miserably, the past two days events clearly overwhelming her beyond the point of recovery. (I was slowly starting to feel sorry for Strawberry - all of this must have been very, very stressful for her. I know it was stressful for me). We all rejoined in the clearing, and after a brief explanation of the rest of journey, we started on our way.

We silently went through Chimodzi Forest, which was a dense forest full of your typical Bug and Grass Type Pokemon, like Caterpie, Weedle, Wurmple, Scatterbug, Venipede, Petilil, Oddish, the list goes on and on. It was nice and relaxing compared to the events of the past two days, which was nice - looking at the early morning sun through the gaps in the boughs of the trees was an experience I have never had before, only read about in beautiful poetry.

Of course, it wasn't all fun and games - we certainly had a scuffle or two with a feral Pokemon, but it wasn't anything serious, and neither I nor Tom had to dirty our paws… or wax. Rokka, like all Dark Types, itched for fights and took care of all the fights, even with type disadvantages.

Once we made it through the forest, we opened our way to the top of a hill, which overlooked the

countryside that surrounded us. Roughly a thirty minutes walk away there was a large city, from which I could hear the hustle and bustle from even from where we were standing. Peng, taking the lead from a second from a severely annoyed Kol, proudly gesticulated to the city. "Take your first look at Jeden City of Ring Number 1!"

That sounded strange. "Ring Number 1?" I try to ask casually. I've just discovered something else I don't know - and the curiosity in me demands an answer.

Before Peng could answer, however, Kol interrupted. "You can ask your questions later." Damn. "Right now, we need to get to our Venture base.

Venture Base?

VENTURE BASE?

HE ACTS LIKE TOM AND I KNOW WHAT THESE WORDS MEAN!

Come on, Tom, ask a question or two, help sate the demon of curiosity inside me…

But Tom is silent - he knows that for an incredibly arbitrary reason he's on thin ice with the rest of the team.

So while my curiosity and pride battle each other, we continue on to Jeden City, to the "Venture Base". An hour later, we're well within the boundaries of the city.

At this point, my curiosity tries to calm itself down with the new technologies that should be invented two thousand years in the future, but instead, I find nothing, absolutely nothing, as I realize that somehow Naixe has gone backward as instead of finding new technologies I find the lack of old ones. What happened? I thought progress meant inventing new things, not getting rid of old things?

Another fifteen minutes of walking later, we arrived at our destination. It was a great blue building in the middle of what seemed to be a residential district, what with the old houses dotting the street. The building was made using a strange type of architecture, using curves and incredibly sharp angles and points in favor of simple geometric shapes. Peng opened the door, which was luckily relatively normal, and we all stepped inside.

Inside was a cacophony of sound as we saw Pokemon of all shapes and sizes. Tom gasped silently next to me, and I could sympathize with him a lot - this must be a lot to take in for someone who was only recently introduced to Pokemon (I still can't believe that, though - he didn't know what POKEMON was!)

I, personally, wondered what all of this was. Kol said that this was a Venture Base, but I didn't even know what that meant. Now, though, doesn't seem to be the time to ask - I don't I would be able to hear Kol's, or anyone's, answer to my question. Kol led us through the crowd. Judging from the looks of respect and silent admiration he got, I guess he was well-known and like around here. We went up a couple of floors and went through a couple of hallways, before arriving at a clearly important room, judging by the expensive yet strong materials the door was made out of. Rokka opened the door this time, and we went in.

Inside the door, there was an open circular room. Across the wooden floor, there was a desk, with a Blaziken sleeping on what looked like a chair and a Cinccino busying itself with what looked like a large line of papers and parchments. Kol tiredly cleared his throat, and the Cinccino's head snapped up in surprise.

"Team Link! You're back!" The clearly female Cinccino greeted warmly. Of course, that lasted for all of two seconds, before she actually took in our tired, wounded, and burned appearance.

"WHAT HAPPENED?" She half-shouted, her high voice echoing around the stone dome of the room. Kol and I cringed, her shriek damaging to our sensitive ears. Everyone else looked a little shaken with her sound blast, and the napping Blaziken woke up with a start, flailing around in his chair, before focusing on what happened.

"We ran into some trouble…" Kol tried to explain, before the Blaziken, now looking disjointed and confused, interrupted.

"Wh… What? Team Link? Why are you here." The Blaziken blinked rather stupidly. "I sent you guys to find apprehend that pokemon trafficker - I'm pretty sure it was a Ditto, of all things - but instead I see you with three civilian pokemon and no Ditto. What happened?" The Blaziken and Cinccino leaned forward expectantly. "Brief us on what happened."

Kol shook himself a little bit, then set forward. Once he was clearly in front of us, he cleared his throat began, all eyes of the room resting on him.

"Mission Report." He began somewhat imperiously. The Cinccino jolted a little bit, then whisked around the desk for a stray pen, before finding a steel pen lying on the middle of the desk. She took out a blank piece of paper from under the desk as well, wrote something on it using the inkwell on the desk, and then nodded for Kol to continue.

"Once Team Link received the mission, we prepared our supplies for the oncoming fight, including a Wonder Map, 5 of each of the core 6 berries, and an Escape Orb." As Kol continued the report, the Cinccino continued to write on the paper, making me think she was a scribe of some sorts.

"After our preparations, we took off into the general area the Ditto, whose name the mission statement called Henka (which is how I shall be referring to him now in the report, Miss Milla). Through investigations done by the Magnezone Department of Investigations, we were told that Henka was operating in the area surrounding the Great Plains."

The Cinccino, who I presumed was named Milla, nodded, and made a revision in her document before the Blaziken motioned for Kol to continue, his eyes narrowed. Tom nervously shifted beside me while Strawberry took this chance to cling to Gel.

"We investigated the area, looking for any clues that would allow us to find a base of operations. I eventually picked up a scent that closely resembled wax, and upon extra investigation determined that the smell had originated from a large stone landmark in the southwestern corner of the Great Plains. There was nothing special about the rock, except for the melted wax on top of the landmark and the wax lining one of the sides of the stone landmark."

Incredibly, it seems like Tom had accidentally left clues for "Team Link" to follow.

"Investigating that specific side of the landmark allowed us to determine a stone boulder was used as a door. At this point, we had found the entrance to Henka's hideout. Upon conferring with my team, we decided that using Rokka's Dig would be most effective to enter the hideout. Once Rokka entered the cave, he opened the way for us using terraforming abilities."

So THAT was how they got in!

… Why am I so surprised?

"However, at this point, we had made a large ruckus, and Henka came to investigate. We immediately fell into a battle with Henka. We immediately fell into a series of coordinated attacks, yet Henka, in the form of a Dragonite, evaded all of them. Henka immediately knocked out Gel with a Fire Punch, then immediately began attacking Peng next. Peng used a Bide while Henka did this, resorting to our Plan D, seeing as Plans A through C all required all the members of the team to be conscious."

I had figured as much - Bide was one of the most Powerful moves, I seemed to remember, if used correctly.

"While Peng was being attacked and charging the Bide, Rokka began to assault Henka with a long barrage of Iron Tails, yet wasn't able to close the distance due to Henka's Dragonite tail interfering. I began to use Charge to prepare for an extremely strong Thunder Fang. However, Henka appeared to notice me and began to charge at me. I was unprepared for an attack, and it didn't occur to me to attack myself at this point."

At this point, I felt something off was in the story, but I wrote it off and continued to listen.

"Henka grabbed me and threw me to the ground, weakening me and immobilizing me for a precious few seconds. Luckily, Rokka continued his attack, yet was repelled by an Aqua Tail. This gave enough time, however, to recover and continue my attack. Rokka and I went for a coordinated Crunch-and-Spark attack - unfortunately, Henka repelled that too, this time with a Dragon Tail. This knocked both Rokka and me out of the fight."

Kol, after saying this, took a deep breath, then turned to Peng. "May you explain what happened next, Peng?"

Peng nodded. "Of course. Rokka and Kol's combination attack managed to wound Henka somewhat, in addition to the damage he had suffered earlier in the fight. At this point, my Bide was finished charging and, even though I was exhausted, I fired it at Henka for a direct hit. At this point, I had noticed three civilians which seemed to be victims of Henka's trafficking. I spared a second to console them. However, it appears that it allowed Henka enough time to recover, which allowed him to knock me out as well."

Blaziken leaned forward again, having rested his head against his chair to hear the story. "What happened next?"

Gel stepped forward. "I eventually came to consciousness again, having recovered slightly from Henka's powerful Fire Punch. Upon regaining my senses I saw Henka threatening his three captives, the Litwick, Eevee, and Vanillite you see here. This Vanillite you might recognize as" Gel coughed, a small smile appearing on his face. "My little sister. Then I began to hear Henka laugh cruelly and began to hear my sister cry. At this point, a rage came over me and I shot an Ice Beam at Henka, whose back was turned to me. The Ice Beam connected and I managed to knock Henka out completely, reverting him to a Ditto form. I froze Henka into a block of ice and sealed him off completely."

Blaziken brightened. "So your capture was a success, then? You had neutralized Henka's danger completely, it seemed."

Kol cam forward again, nodding. "Yes - at that point, Henka wasn't a danger anymore. However, an unexpected development came about suddenly - we experienced a Twisting."

At this point, Blaziken's eyes narrowed slightly and Milla let out a small gasp.

"So you became trapped in a Mystery Dungeon then - you are sure the dimensions twisted around you to create a Mystery Dungeon, and not that you were simply dizzy, correct?"

SO THAT'S WHAT A TWISTING IS! A TWISTING IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A MYSTERY DUNGEON IS CREATED.

Team Link's comments about the Twisting suddenly made a whole lot more sense.

Kol nodded rather gravely, and Blaziken looked forlorn. "Another Mystery Dungeon, then. Pity, then - even more work for us Venturers." Blaziken sighed. "Continue."

"Once we had verified it was a Twisting, we _immediately_ set to work" Kol interrupted his report to glare at Rokka and Peng, who both had the audacity to look sheepish. I remembered their little spat and grinned - looking back, it was pretty funny. "Our Escape Orbs broke in the fight, so we were forced to traverse the Dungeon. It was a short Dungeon, but we encountered some unpleasant surprises along the way." Short? That was a short dungeon? Wow - Now I'm slightly worried about the larger dungeons.

"Gel went to work with the victims, giving them orders that they managed to follow, for the most part. We recovered as much as we could from the bag and decided to move as fast as possible through the gym to minimize our chances of getting Captured. We then went into the Dungeon - all 7 of us."

Milla coughed to get everyone's attention. "Excuse me, but for simplicity's sake, may I learn the names of each of Henka's three previous captives. Name and Species, then Usable Moves"

This seemed like the perfect opportunity to introduce myself. I went up proudly, my chest heaved up high, and spoke with regality. "Hello, Milla," I said imperiously. Of course, when I saw the narrowed eye look on her face I realized she wasn't impressed and decided to tone it down a bit. "My name is Glacia and I'm an Eevee. I can use the moves Tackle, Quick Attack, Sand Attack, and Shadow Ball." I felt that was a bit incomplete, considering someone of my splendor, but Milla seemed to be satisfied. She motioned for Strawberry, who was next to me, to introduce herself, but Rokka interrupted her, a weird look on his face.

"You know Quick Attack, Glacia.?" He asked semi-politely. I raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah?"

"Then why didn't you use it to escape the Zubats?"

.

.

.

.

.

Now I feel like a humongous idiot.

"Zubats?" Blaziken asked, his eyes widening.

"It'll be later in the report, Captain." Kol hurriedly explained. The Blaziken, who was apparently a Captain, frowned and leaned back in his chair.

I gave Strawberry a pat on the back, and she stepped forward a little bit. She then introduced herself with a timid voice. "My n-name is Strawberry. I'm a Shiny Vanillite, and I know the moves Icy Wind and Harden." She quickly stepped backward and attached herself to Gel.

Milla quickly made a couple more notes on her document, then motioned to Tom.

Tom stepped forward. "Uh, hello… My name is… Tom, I think. I guess I'm a Litwick and I don't think I know any moves."

Milla stopped writing, and all eyes turned to stare at Tom. I began to hurriedly help Tom - he owes me now, even more than he did previously. "He knows Ember - I don't think he knows any other moves, though."

Milla stared for a couple of more seconds, her eyes seemingly trying to penetrate Tom's waxy exterior. She eventually gave up, though, and made another note in her document. She then motioned to Kol again, "Please, Kol - continue."

Kol nodded and began the story again. "The Dungeon consisted of five floors. Nothing of note occurred on the first floors - we encountered no enemies. Team Link did learn, however, that Tom here apparently has amnesia, which is why he gave those half-answers to your questions to your questions, Milla."

There was an uncomfortable silence in the room, and a tension settled into the room that could be easily be sliced in half by one cut of a Scyther blade. Kol continued, relatively undaunted.

"Other than that discovery, there were no other significant issues with the first floor. We went onto the Staircase single file and moved onto the next floor. Once we reached the next floor, we were faced with two paths to travel on. Upon further discussion, we went to the left path.

"Up until this point, we had no serious trouble. However, upon exiting the left path into the new room, we were attacked by a…" Kol gulped. "Monster House."

Upon saying this, Milla stopped writing and both she and the Captain froze in place for a couple of seconds. The Captain recovered soon enough, though. "Monster House? You found a MONSTER HOUSE in the first Ring?"

Kol nodded. "Yes, Captain - I didn't want to believe it either, but yeah, we encountered a Monster House. There were only Zubats in the Monster House, so we didn't have too much trouble dispatching them. However, fearing for the civilians' safety, I had sent them ahead in the Dungeon. Nothing of note occurred during the third and fourth floors - we encountered some Geodudes, Zubats, and a Dewpider or two, but nothing worrying or serious."

The Captain nodded. "You hadn't encountered the civilians yet, though?"

Kol shook his head. "No, Captain - they seemed to be blazing through the dungeon much faster than we were, we hadn't encountered them and yet the Staircases had puddles of wax on them. Anyway, once we entered the fifth floor, we finally caught up to them. After following a trail of wax and water, we finally managed to catch up with them.

"Strawberry and Glacia were captured by an Araquanid, and Tom was doing battle with it. They had nearly lost when we arrived. I bit the Araquanid with a Thunder Fang and knocked it out. They were captive near the Staircase, so after extricating them and feeding Strawberry a Cheri Berry for her Paralysis, we escaped the Dungeon."

Mill nodded, and the Captain clapped his hands in joy. "Wonderful! Glad to see no one was seriously harmed. What happened to Henka during this time?"

Gel answered. "On the way in the Mystery Dungeon I refroze Henka - he wouldn't be getting out of that Ice Cube anytime soon without help."

"Excuse me," Milla said, raising her hand. "May I please get an account of the Dungeon from the civilians - it sounds like they had a different path than you did, Team Link."

I stepped forward again. "Yes, Milla." Her eyes narrowed again, and I felt a shiver race down my spine. I shook it off and continued. "We ran away from the Zubats as fast as possible. We managed to get to the Staircase and go on to the next floor. After talking to Strawberry for a bit, Tom and I learned a little about Mystery Dungeons - after which we were attacked by a Geodude. We ran for our lives because none of us were prepared to face it - and then we encountered the Staircase. The Staircase for the fourth floor was in the room we were in, so we had no serious issues there.

"Upon reaching the fifth floor, we were attacked by an army of Dewpiders. Strawberry and I were knocked out and brought to the Araquanid's layer - at least, I think we were, I just woke up trussed and tied up. The Araquanid started playing with us, and I began to…" at this point, my pride closed up my throat. I coughed a little bit, then continued. "... scream. At this point, Tom, who had apparently followed us, attacked the Araquanid with an Ember. Using a combination of Embers and Shadow Balls, we slowly managed to weaken the Araquanid. Then Kol came and attacked the Araquanid, and you know what happened next."

Milla nodded. "What did you do, Tom?"

"I… after the... Dewpiders?... attacked, managed to stay somewhat conscious and I chased after the Dewpiders. After a couple of battles, I encountered the Araquanid and began to battle." Tom finished off somewhat lamely."

Milla nodded, made a couple of notes on her document, then motioned for Kol to continue.

"After we had escaped the Dungeon, we went to Chimodzi Forest, where we built our campsite. After telling Tom to think of a name - he wasn't called Tom at this point, we simply referred to him as Litwick - and roasting a Zigzagoon, we set up camp for the night. Gel was guarding the Henka Ice Cube, while Rokka was standing guarding the campsite for the night."

Rokka, at this point silent for ten minutes (a true boon), stepped up. "I stood guard over the campsite. At some point, Tom decided to accompany me, although we made no conversation. Nothing of interest occurred during my shift, and I eventually switched with Peng."

Peng stepped forward herself. "Upon standing guard, I shared a conversation with Tom, before I was attacked by Powder Particles."

Blaziken leaned forward. "Powder Particles?"

Peng nodded. "Sleep Powder and Poison Powder, I believe - I immediately fell asleep afterward." She motioned to Tom to continue the report.

Tom stepped up, doing something I never thought I would see a Litwick do… blushing. "Yes, well… After Peng fell asleep, I tried waking her up, but she wouldn't wake up. I heard a strange form of laughter, and turned to see a strange Pokemon that had roses for hands."

Milla motioned for Tom to stop, then rooted around in the desk's drawers. She eventually pulled out a stack of pictures and pulled out two. She held them up and pointed them toward Litwick. It was a picture of a Roselia and a Roserade.

"Did it look like one of these two?" Milla asked politely. Tom nodded and then pointed to the Roserade. Milla nodded herself, then made a note on the document. "Continue," she ordered.

"The… rose Pokemon was spreading around some green and purple particles around the campsite, covering everything. After that, it turned to me and transformed into Henka."

Milla and the Captain looked dumbstruck at this, their mouths opening wide. It looked a little funny and would have been funnier if the air wasn't so morose.

"... Henka? I thought he was frozen." The Captain remarked.

Tom shrugged as well as he could, being a Litwick and all. "He wasn't frozen then, that's for sure. He then flew away, as a Dragonite. I tried to attack him with an Ember, but all I managed to do was burn the field, causing a wildfire. I panicked, then waked Gel up with my flame. He ordered me to put the pink and purple Berries in everyone's mouths, which I did, before I fell asleep."

Kol stepped forward again. "Once we woke up, we began to combat the wildfire, as well as rescue anyone who was still in danger. After a small debriefing and interrogation, we packed up and headed here." Kol took a deep breath. "End Report."

Milla slowly put her steel pen down, and the Captain took a deep breath, breathing out a puff of smoke. "Let me get this straight. You captured Henka, you got caught in a Mystery Dungeon, you escaped the Mystery Dungeon, Henka escaped, you came here."

Kol nodded.

The Captain put a hand across his face. "I… that was a strange mission." He said bluntly. "I'm confused - how did Henka escape?" He put lamely.

Rokka, Gel, and Kol all began to stare at Tom. He began shrinking under their gazes, turning into himself.

The Captain shook his head. "Well, there's nothing we can do about it now, anyway." He clapped his hands. "Strawberry will be going to her family, of course - where do you live, Glacia?"

That… was a tough question. "I… don't know, Captain."

The Captain shook his head. "My name is Falcon, but you can call me Captain Falcon, if you want - I like it a lot, personally." Capt. Falcon smiled. "What about you, Tom?"

"...Amnesia." Tom said simply.

Capt. Falcon nodded. "Ah, right." He looked pensive for a second, then gave out a great smile. "Well, if you don't have any homes or families, Tom and Glacia, I guess you'll have to become a Venturer."

At this point, you could hear a pin drop in the room. Nobody, and I mean NOBODY, was expecting that. Milla recovered first. "C-Captain? A-Are you sure?"

Capt. Falcon nodded. "Yes, Milla - they have to pay for their rescue in some way or another, and this is one way we are sure to get our money back - and anyway, they have nowhere to go, so it's not like they can escape. They did well in the Mystery Dungeon so I'm sure they'll do well with our training course" Capt. Falcon turned to us, his voice booming. "COME ON - Welcome to the Team!"

* * *

After Glacia and Tom had been taken away to their new living quarters and Team Link had been dismissed for the rest of the day for healing, Milla spoke to Falcon, concern etched into her face.

"Why… why did you make them into Venturers, Captain? You should have seen that "Tom's" story was full of lies and holes - it was an obvious fabrication, Captain." Milla spoke, concern and annoyance in her tone. "Why didn't we just hand him off to the Magnezones - they would have brought him to Night's prison, she would have loved to dissect him."

Falcon was silent for a time, looking at Milla solemnly with his head resting on his claws. He sighed, then began to speak. "Yes, Milla - a fool could see that "Tom" freed Henka - nobody else could have done it - after all, everyone else was asleep or on guard duty, and there were instances that he could have used to free Henka. All "Tom" would have needed to do was use a targeted Confuse Ray on Peng while she dozed off, causing the appearance of Powders, and by pulling Henka out and using a Fire Attack he could have melted Henka. After Henka sprayed Powders everywhere to poison and deepen the sleep of Team Link and the other civilians, "Tom" could have simply sent him on his way.

"We don't know where "Tom" came from, and his "Amnesia" is a bit too convenient. We can't enter his mind due to his Ghost typing, so we can't confirm what he is saying after all. He could easily be in league with Henka, and he could have used his wax as bait for any rescuers. Keeping this in mind, everything fits into place.

"He saved everyone so he could infiltrate the Venturers, Milla - there is no other possibility."

"BUT THEN WHY DID YOU MAKE HIM A VENTURER, CAPTAIN! YOU'RE PLAYING RIGHT INTO HIS HANDS!" Milla cried out, visibly distressed.

Falcon sorrowfully smirked. "The thing is, without evidence we can't convict him, and he did a fine job erasing the evidence. Magnezone will never convict a Pokemon if there is any reasonable doubt that they are a criminal. And unfortunately, there is a lot of room for doubt, Milla. If we can't convict him, we can either let him go or keep him with us. If we let him go, he'll be out of our grasp for a long time - Henka will have escaped, perfectly.

"If we keep him with us, however, we can catch him doing the criminal acts he intends to do - we'll spring his trap and take him down instead."

Milla calmed down. "Oh… I get it..." she mumbled bashfully.

Falcon nodded silently. "We won't let "Tom" win, Milla." He studied Milla for a little bit. "For now, we'll keep an eye on him. Go take a bit of a break, Milla - I know I need one."

Milla nodded, then silently left Capt. Falcon's, thoughts stewing and brewing around in her mind.

The room was silent after Milla left. Falcon reclined in his chair, a pink sheen in his eyes that seemed to be reflected from the setting sun. He seemed to relax in a strange manner, all of his joints weakened.

"Glacia… Tom… I wonder what HUMANITY wants with you two…" he spoke softly.

The pink sheen glittered unnaturally.


	5. 5 - A New Healer

(Glacia - Venture Base #1-05)

Once Captain Falcon had released us, Team Link, grumbling and groaning in pain, brought us to what looked like a classroom, or at least, what I guess the inside of a classroom would look like - I wouldn't know, I've never been in one. There was a blackboard on a wooden wall, with some desks and chairs littered throughout the room. At the head of the room, there was a Spinda sitting at a desk, writing something on a piece of paper with a bored look on its face.

As we stepped into the room, the Spinda looked up. The Spinda broke out into a smile as it hopped off its chair. "Team Link, you're back," the clearly feminine Spinda greeted warmly. "How did the mission go?" she asked.

Kol sighed, a tone of annoyance clearly present in his voice. "The outlaw escaped, Akara. We don't know _how,_ " he stressed, "but somehow, the outlaw escaped Gel's ice prison in the middle of the night." As he said this, Peng blushed in embarrassment, Gel looked annoyed, and Rokka huffed in impatience, tapping his foot on the ground as he stared out the window in deep thought. Tom said and did nothing.

Akara made a sound of disappointment. "Oh, the sounds troublesome, Kol," she commiserated. "Well, there's nothing we can do about it now. I guess that when he's found again we'll have to after him again, but on the bright side, none of you got seriously hurt, right?" Akara put on a hopeful face. Peng glared at Akara as she said this, and the temperature of the room dropped considerably. I glared too - that was a small consolation given a serial kidnapper was on the loose.

The room was silent for a time, as everyone felt the pain of their wounds. None of us were able to forget the poison - now that I realized what had happened to me during my sleep, I wasn't able to think about anything else for a large period of time. Strawberry began to tear up silently.

Gel shook his head. "Guys, let's not think about Henka. For now, we should talk about what we came here for." He specifically addressed Akara. "Akara, the Captain has decided that these two - the Litwick and the Eevee - will become Venturers. He was apparently impressed by how well they were able to handle themselves in the Mystery Dungeon with no training and decided that since they have no place to stay and no way to pay for their rescue, they should take the course and become Venturers." You know, I really wish Captain Falcon asked for my opinion on that one - I don't even know what a Venturer is, and now these Pokemon are forcing me to become one - it's really quite rude.

Akara gasped, then spun around, over-spun, and then corrected herself, before addressing Gel. "What's this about Mystery Dungeons and Rescues, Gel. What happened during your mission? I thought that you guys were just supposed to take care of the outlaw - when did Mystery Dungeons and Rescues come into play?" she asked, clearly distressed.

Gel was about to answer, but before he could, Kol interrupted, looking fairly annoyed as he did so. "We'll tell you later, Akara. Right now, we have to register them for the course." He coughed, and a little bit of purple dust came out. "We need to go to the medical bay to get some treatment - we got into a couple of dangerous scuffles and we need to be seen to." He motioned to the rest of his Team. "Come on, guys - I need to relax" He began walking out the door. Peng shook Rokka into lucidity, and they, along with Gel and Strawberry, sullenly walked out of the classroom.

As they stepped over the threshold, Akara turned to us, muttering under her breath. "Those guys… Team Link can be irritating at times, with their love of mystery and drama. If Peng and Rokka would ever listen to each other for more than just a second, they would be able to solve their difficulties easily. Kol loves leaving me in suspense and makes me beg for the juicy information." Akara frowned. "I honestly wish they would be a little nicer."

"Hey, they try their best." Surprisingly, Tom interrupted. I didn't peg Tom as the type of Pokemon to get into a verbal argument. "They try their hardest at what they do - don't be so mean. Ma'am" He added as an afterthought.

Akara waved him off, looking peeved as she did so. "Litwick, dear, while it may seem like that Team Link is a group of dashing rescuers, they make as many problems as a hive of Beedrill does, and at least Beedrill are quiet most of the time.

Tom went forward, wishing to interject, but I stopped him - we were getting nowhere quickly. "Akara, Kol said something about us becoming Venturers." I prodded for more information. "What are Venturers?"

Akara sighed. "First, Eevee dear, call me Ms. Gaw - Akara is the name my colleagues can call me by, and it would be incredibly awkward if I hard one of my pupils calling me by my first name." Upon seeing our faces at "pupil", she ruefully smiled. "Yes, 'pupil'. While I don't particularly like the idea of Pokemon being forcefully drafted into the venturers, I have no right to contest Captain Falcon's authority." I wondered whether she had been forced to draft before.

"Second, I would like to know your names as well - calling students by species name is rude, as I am sure you are well aware of." She took a deep breath then asked a question of her own. "What do you mean, 'What are Venturers?'?"

"Ms. Gaw," Tom started in a respectful, yet hurried tone. "What my friend Glacia here means to ask is 'What do Venturers do, exactly?'." Nice save, Tom. It's not like she can see _all_ the way through that somewhat pathetic excuse.

Ms. Gaw looked concerned, then sighed again. "Crash course, then. Can't believe you kids didn't hear any fairy tales - or heck, listen to your parents at all. Would explain a lot." I growled under my breath as she turned toward the blackboard, where she picked up a piece of chalk. The nerve of her! "Judging from what Kol said, you two know what Mystery Dungeons are at least, right?" At our nods, she smiled and continued. "Good, this will make this incredibly easier.

"As you know, Mystery Dungeons litter Naixe." THERE'S MORE OF THEM?! "As a result, Pokemon would get Captured… a lot. Eventually, when a friend of a Captured Pokemon went back for one of them and rescued them, we realized that we needed some Pokemon to go and rescue those stuck in the Mystery Dungeons - and those Pokemon became Venturers." Alright, that "you can rescue Captured Pokemon" makes Mystery Dungeons a whole lot less scary. I heard Tom sigh next to me - he probably felt relieved at that too.

"We generally call Pokemon who go into Mystery Dungeons for a living Venturers, because they venture into Mystery Dungeons." As she taught, Ms. Gaw wrote words on the board and tapped on them as she talked. "Venturers, as a term, is broad in its nature, as there are a lot of sub-classes of Venturers. There are Rescuers who go into Mystery Dungeons to rescue Captured Pokemon, Explorers who explore Dungeons for other Venturers to find out crucial information as well as scout out any Treasure the Dungeon may have captured, and Hunters, which capture outlaws like the one Team Link went after."

She turned to us as she finished. "Incidentally, Team Link is a multi-purpose Team, having a dual role in rescuing and hunting. She sighed. "Other than the Ring-Breakers, that covers the role of the Venturers. Other than a couple of minor subclasses, most Venturers follow one or more of these paths."

"Ring-Breakers?"Tom asked, his waxy face wrinkled in confusion. "What are Ring-Breakers?"

Ms. Gaw groaned and dizzily put a hand to her head. After a moment, she lifted her hands from her face. "Ring-Breakers are a specialized group of Venturers that penetrate the Rings so that we can have wonderful things like glass oil for lamps from the Hamazapi Desert. They set up special rings for teleportation so that merchants and the like can get from place to place, due to the Rings blocking any form of transport between them.

"Rings?" Okay, at this point I was tired of all these new things I had to learn. How much had changed in the past two thousand years, anyway?

"Enough questions for now, I'll let Mrs. Kiss know that she needs to unload the entire library on you two while you rest up. Oh, and Litwick, what's your name?"

Tom blinked. "Tom."

Ms. Gaw nodded. "Great." She opened one of her desk's drawers and pulled out a piece of paper. She quickly scribbled something down on it, then turned to us. "I'll get the rest of the information later, right now you two best be off to the medical bay to get yourselves checked out for the physical exams - ask some other Venture member to help you find it, right now I'm busy writing down your paperwork for being accepted.

She twisted toward us, over-twisted, righted herself, then dizzily walked us out. "See you later, dears." She closed the door behind us, leaving us into the wooden hallway we entered from. Oh, how polite - I feel _so_ flattered.

I growled again and muttered something under my breath as Tom watched on in confusion. He must be confused, as someone as spectacular as I seldom look angry, but Ms. Gaw, the Spinda who will, unfortunately, be our teacher soon, pushed the patience right out of me with her rudeness.

I'll show her…

"... Glacia? Glacia?" Tom was nudging me, apparently trying to get my attention. I almost snapped at him, but at the last second I gained an inch of control and managed to stop myself from causing an incident. You hear that, Arceus? I'm the better Pokemon here.

"Yeah, Tom?" I dazedly ask Tom.

"We should probably be getting around to asking one of the Venturers about whether they know where the medical bay is."

His voice snapped me out of my daze. "... uh, yeah. We should do that." Why do I sound so passive? I am the princess of Eon Kingdom - I shouldn't be this wishy-washy.

Tom nodded. "Then let's go!" He exclaimed, sounding incredibly relieved. He probably was unnecessarily worried for me, the dork. Well, time to get a move on.

* * *

We, after getting lost for a while, eventually found our way to the main lobby where we had first entered the Venture Base. The room was much calmer than it was before, the previously high amounts of Pokemon reduced to only one Pokemon walking through the lobby to one of the connecting hallways, making me think that there was an event earlier that we had walked through.

The remaining Pokemon was a Volcarona, judging from the wing shape. Tom and I went as quickly as we could to catch it before we lost it. I used Quick Attack, that Rokka oh-so-helpfully reminded me I can use. Zipping down the stairs and across the lobby, I blocked the Volcarona from moving forward, Tom reaching me ten seconds later.

The Volcarona narrowed its eyes, its crossed irises flattening. "What do you two want," the Volcarona asked tiredly in a gruff voice. "I'm head to the training room right now."

Tom, panting and wheezing from his exertion, asked the question. "Do you… *huff* …know… *huff* …where the… *huff* …medical bay… *huff* …is?"

The Volcarona pointed toward one of the other hallways. "Keeping going straight in that hallway, the medical bay is at the end. Is that all?" The Volcarona asked.

"No, thank you." I decided to end it with a little bit of diplomacy, from the kindness of my heart - the Volcarona's size had nothing to do with it. "Your help was appreciated."

"Please Leave." Let's just say me and Tom did not stick around.

We instantly headed off in the tunnel the Volcarona had pointed us to, and followed his directions, heading straight. Eventually, we arrived at a white door with a red cross on it - and, well, that seemed as good of a place to be the medical bay as any. I rapped on it a couple of times with my paw, and after a couple of minutes of waiting and an awkward silence between me and Tom, the door opened. A Togetic opened the door.

"Hello! How are… you…?" The Togetic, while happy at the beginning, trailed off, her face whitening. I only had a second to process this before Tom and I were dragged into the bay by the Togetic, one hand on my ruff while the other hand on Tom's wax.

She immediately sat us down on a couple of chairs, took a deep breath, gave us a hard look, then spoke, her voice saturated with an unknown air of malevolence and… motherliness?

"Who are you?" she asked. "Why are you here? Why do you look half-dead?" Her voice steadily rose in pitch as her matronly tone grew more desperate. "I'm going to require answers."

"Um… Hello… Ms. Gaw sent us. We were supposed to come here to… check ourselves out for physical exams. We're registering to become Venturers." Tom tried to explain.

The Togetic groaned, then she gave him a scathing stare. "Alright then, explain to me why you two look like resuscitated cadavers." Before Tom could attempt to explain things to her, she stopped him. "Before you do that, tell me your names."

Tom gestured to me. "Her name is Glacia."

"Hello," I spoke meekly. Wait a second, why do I sound like one of my servants? What's wrong with me?

Tom then gestured to himself. "My name is Tom."

The Togetic nodded. "Alright. Tom?" she pointed a pen she had procured out of nowhere at Tom. Tom nodded. She then pointed the pen at me. "Glacia?" I nodded as well. She produced a piece of paperwork from somewhere, then began to write things down on it. I had a feeling of deja vu, but then it passed.

"Alright then. You may call me Ms. Kiss." She gave us both another hard look. "I am the matron of the medical bay, and I expect respect from you two." Ms. Kiss crossed her arms. "Now I still have one question left - why do you look like you have just risen from your graves?"

Tom and I gave her the shortened version, starting from what happened in Henka's cave to arriving at the medical bay. As we spoke, she narrowed her eyes and began flying around us, poking and prodding us, as well as writing things down on the piece of paperwork she had written our names on.

Once we got to the rescue by Team Link, she gasped. "Ah, you were the two civilians that Team Link had rescued, then."

Tom and I stared. "How do you know, Ms. Kiss?" I asked, slightly confused.

Ms. Kiss waved both of us off. "Team Link is in the other room - they have come for treatment of the Poison Powder they had inhaled last night, apparently. Ms. Kiss then started. "Ah, you two most likely have the same problem, then." She made a note on her piece of paperwork. Eventually, we finished off our story (which was long), and she nodded.

"Okay, so while that explains a couple of the injuries, or well, your injuries, Glacia, that leaves some of your injuries unexplained, Tom. I can see the burns from where the Ditto ripped you out of your confines, and the damage from the Shadow Ball does have an unmistakable marking on your wax. That doesn't explain these puncture marks on your back." She circled around to Tom's backside and began poking him. Tom began wincing, and with my curiosity peaked I decided to look at these so-called "puncture marks".

Calling them puncture marks was most definitely an understatement. There were giant indentations in Tom's back, looking like huge cavities within Tom's waxy skin, and when Ms. Kiss poked them they… bled… wax. I could see Tom try to hold in his tears as she did this.

"I'm sorry, Tom, if this hurts, but I have to look at this more closely."

She gave the holes an extra large poke. Tom looked like he could barely manage to keep his scream to himself.

Ms. Kiss then muttered "How is he still conscious?", and my opinion of her dropped considerably.

"Ms. Kiss, stop it, he's getting hurt, can't you see that?" I implored her.

Ms. Kiss's frown grew even more. "Of course, Glacia." She then moved away from Tom and I saw him sigh in relief. Ms. Kiss rested her head on her hand as she thought for a couple of seconds. Tom slowly recovered as she did so, the grimace slowly wiping itself off of his face.

"Ilera?" A familiar voice rang out. "You've been gone for a long time - we've been wondering what's happened to you." Gel, of all pokemon, poked his cone-like head from behind one of the velvet curtains in the room. Upon finding the scene in the room, he began to stare. "... Tom? Glacia? What are you two doing here?"

Ms. Kiss answered him promptly. "Gel, these two have come for their physical exam for entry to the Venturing Course - and I have, instead, sat them down to get their wounds attended to because neither of them looks healthy. They'll be coming into the ward soon for treatment soon, anyway.

"Oh." Gel simply answered. Then, after a moment's thought, he waved at us. "We'll see you pretty soon, then. I'll tell everyone - Strawberry will be happy." Somehow, I doubt everyone will be happy - most likely, Rokka will become even more grumpy and rude than he usually is.

"Oh, that reminds me." Ms. Kiss took the pen she was writing with and lifted it high in the air. As she lifted it into the air, it enveloped itself in a dark energy. I got just by looking at it.

Then she lobbed it, at an incredibly fast speed, toward Tom.

He had no chance to dodge.

Once the pen contacted Tom, all of the black energy flowed from the object to Tom's wax, and Tom's body flashed dark for a second. Tom's grimace returned full force, and in addition to that, he began to tear up a little bit.

At this point, I had enough. I jumped off the seat Ms. Kiss put me on and faced her, slowly gathering indigo particles for a Shadow Ball if I needed it.

As I did that, Ms. Kiss sighed again. "It's just as I thought. There's only one reason why Tom is still conscious." She turned to Tom. "You have an incredibly high tolerance for pain, Tom. With your level of injuries, that should have made you scream - or shout, at the very least. Instead, you have held in your pain, and you've done it remarkably well." Ms. Kiss bowed her head. "I'm sorry I had to make you go through that, Tom. I had no other way of testing my theory."

Tom slowly stopped tearing up. It was quiet for a little while in the bay as Tom nursed his injuries, while Ms. Kiss looked at Tom and his injuries forlornly. I kept on charging the Shadow Ball, for some reason I couldn't fathom.

Slowly, Tom turned his head toward Ms. Kiss and whispered. "Alright", then gave off a small smile. "I'm glad we found that out." Slowly, as the situation defused a little bit, I decided to let the Shadow Ball I had created dissipate, albeit somewhat reluctantly.

Ms. Kiss shook her head, then collapsed on one of the chairs hanging around. "I must confess, I have been inordinately troubled today. Today was my assistant's first field day with the rest of her class to a Mystery Dungeon, and she's not much of a fighter herself. While I know she'll be fine, I just can't help but worry and stress myself. I've been making incredibly rash decisions because of it."

The room was silent.

After a minute's silence, Ms. Kiss continued to speak. "Those puncture's on your back… do you have any idea what could have caused them?"

Tom was silent for a moment. Then he hesitantly spoke. "Well, maybe… before I was captured by Henka, I was in the middle of a rainstorm. It burned like acid on my skin, and I couldn't escape it." Why didn't he just… oh, right he couldn't… ouch, rolling around on the spikes must have hurt. As he talked, Ms. Kiss stared at him, then looked at him suspiciously. Why does everyone have to suspect Tom for everything? "I… rolled around on some rocks, and maybe it was then that I was 'punctured'."

After a minute, Ms. Kiss tsked. "Oh dear…" She made a note on the piece of paperwork. "It was probably a combination of the rain and the rocks - your fire typing made it all the more difficult for you, and the wax physiology made it susceptible to damage."

Oh, that made sense.

"Wait, what?" And yet Tom was confused, judging by his expression. Why would he… right, complete amnesia, can't remember a single useful thing before what happened with the rocks and the water. He probably doesn't even know what Types are. "How would my fire typing affect what water and rocks do to me?" Well, I stand corrected - he does know what Types are, but he doesn't know what Type Effectiveness is.

Ms. Kiss stared at him for a little bit. "Do you not know your Type Effectiveness?" Speak of Giratina, wouldn't you.

"What's Type Effectiveness? All I know is that I'm a Fire-Type." Tom said, confused. Oh dear Arceus, he doesn't even know he's a Ghost Type. Ms. Kiss and I both stared at Tom, who began to shrink under all of the staring. "What?". Oh, he's clueless.

Ms. Kiss slowly turned to me. Then, in halting words, she spoke. "With his pain tolerance this high and the clear lack of memory, can you possibly tell me when he hit his head, Glacia?"

"Hey!" Tom objected. "I didn't hit my head… I think."

Ms. Kiss waved him off. "Either way, I'll need to conduct a closer physical exam on you. I'd like to have my assistant here to help me, for they extra healing energy she'll provide, so you two will have to wait for complete treatment. I'll give you some preliminary treatment for the Poison Powder in your lungs, so it won't be a danger. Once you two have been healed, which will take a couple of days for Tom, we'll have you both take the physical exam."

Tom and I nodded, and Ms. Kiss clapped her hands, apparently delighted. " Alright then - head to the beds in the back so I can see to your treatment. " I was still suspicious of her, given how quickly she attacked Tom, but Tom followed her past the curtain Gel came behind from, and since I didn't want to be left behind I quickly followed.

Ms. Kiss led us into a large room. There were several beds next to the wall, while a stove sat in the corner of the room, next to a shelf that housed many different types of strange elixirs and potions. On a couple of beds, Team Link rested. Rokka and Kol were sleeping on their beds, Kol curled around his pillow while Rokka was sleeping on his side. Peng was busy reading a book (flipping the pages looked to be a little difficult for her and her flippers), while Gel was looking out a window that his bed was next to. Strawberry, who I had completely forgotten about over the course of the day's events, was playing with some wooden toys and was looking much happier than I had ever seen her.

Once we had come into the room, Gel looked over, and he smiled, brightening up the room. "Tom, Glacia, you've come finally come." As he said this, Peng looked up.

"Oh nice, you two came - finally, I was getting a little worried," she remarked offhandedly. She then turned to her book. "Treat them well, Ilera- I hold my faith in you." Somehow, that didn't make me feel any better.

Ms. Kiss gestured toward a couple of beds. "Lie here so I can treat you."

Tom and I slowly got on our beds, and I began to feel a little apprehensive. How would she treat us, if her way of measuring pain tolerance was literally attacking an injured pokemon?

She turned to Tom and floated up next to him. Her hands began to glow green, and with a grunt of exertion, she forcefully clapped her hands together. Once she had clapped her hands together, the green glow of her hands seemed to come alive. It began to move around, and slowly coalesced into what looked like a bell. She held the bell over Tom's mouth and began to shake it. As she shook the bell, Tom began to cough, and purple and green particles began to flow out of his mouth and toward the center of the bell Ms. Kiss had created.

The process took thirty seconds, and by the time it was done a purple and green sphere with a diameter of roughly an inch had been created. Ms. Kiss gingerly brought the bell with the sphere through the air with careful flying toward a bowl had already had a large number of the powders inside it that was lying on the desk below the shelves. She shook the sphere, and after a couple of shakes the sphere dissolved into powder and settled on top of the powder already in the bowl. She then made the bell disappear.

Tom, meanwhile, began to look drowsy once the bell had taken away most of the powders. "I'm feeling… really… really sleepy." he groggily remarked.

Ms. Kiss nodded. "My unique Heal Bell has that effect on some Pokemon - they can't help but feel drowsy and sleep once they've been treated by my Heal Bell. Kol and Rokka were affected, as you can see." Of course, these words were lost on Tom, as he had already fallen asleep, his snores loud and grating. While I'm glad he's getting some good sleep, I dearly hope I won't have to listen to that permanently.

Ms. Kiss turned to me. "Glacia dear, it's your turn." Oh joy, now I get treated by the sleep Heal Bell.

Ms. Kiss brought her hands near me, and I began to try and relax - Tom didn't seem so pained by the Heal Bell, so I won't be bothered either…

… wait, Tom has that monstrous pain tolerance.

Ms. Kiss formed the Heal Bell again and began to shake it near my ruff. Immediately I felt a burning sensation in my lungs - they felt incredibly heavy and I felt an irresistible urge to choke. Given that's what Tom did to remove himself from the Powders, I choked and out of my breath flowed the purple and green particles. As Ms. Kiss kept on shaking the bell above my head, more and more of the particles coalesced, until a sphere of a similar size to Tom's formed at the center of the Heal Bell.

As Ms. Kiss flew over to the bowl with the particles in the center of the bell, I began to feel pangs of drowsiness. I realized that I was going to fall asleep and tried to desperately fight it off, but failed miserably.

Ms. Kiss noticed my struggles and smiled. "Don't fight it Glacia - just relax, you'll be fine." Despite my attempts at staying awake, I soon found myself nodding off at her words. "You're in good hands, Glacia. Don't worry."

My eyes fell shut.

* * *

My dreams were chaotic, flying everywhere with no common theme within them. At some points, I would be flying in the air, feeling as free as a Pidgey on its first flight. At other points, I would be dancing, jolly Ludicolo surrounding me with smiles adorning their faces.

That was a strange dream, to be sure,

I had other dreams, though. In one of the dreams, I was drowning in a dark pool of water. I was reminded of my dream from last night, but this time it was different. The water seemed normal, like your average pool of water, except it had the strange capability of raising my fur as if I was somehow afraid of the water - which made no sense because I'm no Fire Type.

The dream then shifted. I was in a strange building, the walls fancy and unique. I was in a hall, with torches lighting my way forward. I decided to walk forward, wondering what would be at the end of this strange hallway. At the end of the hallway, Tom stood, his back facing to me. I tried calling out to him, so I could see what he thought of this strange place. However, I found that my voice wouldn't work, as if someone had glued it shut. Tom began to laugh, and I was taken aback - his voice was no longer his normal voice, but that of a cruel female. Tom twisted around, his body glowing white as he evolved.

"Do you like me now? Am I _sweet_ enough for you now?" Tom, now a Lampent spoke in a female voice as the hallway shook. I could barely hold on as Tom continued to laugh, and I prayed for it to end.

The dream shifted again. I was in a black Limbo. A light pink sphere encapsulated my view, except for a dark spot I knew contained someone I was familiar with. The pink sphere glittered unnaturally, and I felt a brief euphoric sensation before a seductive female voice continued to laugh endlessly as I fell into the abyss, a dreamless sleep enveloping me.

* * *

(? - Venture Base #1-05)

As we stepped into the Venture Base, I winced. The field trip was every bit as painful as I had imagined - well, at least I learned that Ms. Kiss isn't always right, at the very least. She, like me, can make mistakes.

Today, I wish she hadn't.

The class was supposed to go to one of the nearby Dungeons today, a simple 5-floor dungeon that could be easily completed in an hour, as long as you kept your wits about you. Mr. Pix took each of us in groups so that everyone could go into the Mystery Dungeon without creating too big of a group (which was one of Ms. Gaw's rules, as having more than four people made Dungeons do strange and weird things, good or bad.

It took a long time - like, a _really_ long time because there were twenty-four of us; meaning that in groups of four (including Mr. Pix; of course), Mr. Pix could only take three of us at a time. At around an hour per group, the entire debacle took 8 hours - which meant that, for a little under 90% of the time, most of the class was waiting for their "turn" at the Mystery Dungeon.

Of course, nobody really wanted a "turn" at the Mystery Dungeon, except for the exceptionally arrogant. Pokemon like Ken and Catal get under my snow-white skin and irritate me to an incredible extent. They either think they're invincible because their father is the captain of the Venture Base or they're a Dark type, which, like any other respectable Psychic type, makes me uncomfortable beyond compare.

It doesn't help that they push their weight around like they are the only people who matter, anyway.

The Dungeon we went to today was Floral Field, which was only an hour away from Jeden City. Ms. Gaw made us research Floral Field as homework for last night in preparation for the journey today, and because of that, I learned a little bit of Floral Field's history. One little factoid about Floral Field is that before it became a Mystery Dungeon all those centuries ago it was what was considered the spot of where the great explorer Wigglytuff was born.

Wigglytuff was perhaps the greatest explorer of all time (not to be confused with Explorer, the Venturing class). He would traverse the tallest mountains, spelunk into the deepest caves, and find the greatest of treasures; all with a smile on his face. Mr. Pix says that Wigglytuff's attitude about life is perhaps the greatest thing about him and that we should all endeavor to work with a smile.

Of course, it was probably a lot easier to smile when there were no Mystery Dungeons hanging around - after all, there were no Mystery Dungeons in Wigglytuff's time. Well, I really don't know, but I don't _think_ there were any dungeons back then, at least.

We had all brought some supplies for the Dungeon. Mr. Pix said that it was absolutely required that we bring supplies because even though we most likely wouldn't need to use them for Floral Field, there most likely would be Dungeons that would need us to use some supplies, and the more we get used to bringing supplies to Dungeons the better.

After an hour walk out of Jeden City and into the Great Field early in the morning, we reached Floral Field. It was strangely plain in its appearance, which isn't what I thought a Mystery Dungeon would look like. Descriptions were usually horrifying, images of darkness and nightmares and cavernous maws (Catal looked fairly pleased with this). The real Dungeon looked like a simple field, some light-green grass covering a couple of fields with wildflowers dotting the hills here or there. All in all, it looked harmless, and while I was relieved a tiny part of me was slightly disappointed.

Mr. Pix marked a line in the dirt with a stick, then told us that without his permission we were absolutely not allowed to pass this line. He then proceeded to threaten expulsion from the Venturing course if we failed to obey.

Nobody objected, and I wondered what they were more afraid of - the Dungeon or Mr. Pix.

Mr. Pix split us into our groups of three, then took one of the groups into the Dungeon. I never saw Rai, Stop or Lyli ever look so nervous in their life. Even though they were friends for years, even before they joined the Venturing Base, they began to bicker, arguing in who would enter Floral Field first. Sad and kind of pathetic, but very understandable.

Eventually, Mr. Pix, tired of all the bickering that was going on, decided to simply shove all of them across the line (all with a smile on his face) then proceeded to cross the line with them. That left twenty-one of us alone in the clearing before the line of no return. Twenty-one of us who were nervous and scared of what the Mystery Dungeon would bring.

Naturally, fights broke out.

Catal, of course, was the one to start it. He made a blithely caustic remark about how "cowardly" Rai, Stop, and Lyli were, and how they need to "Pokemon themselves up". Soon, Kaori began to object and shout at Catal, screaming at him how callous he was when he called them cowards. Ken soon began to defend Catal, along with Jenga, then Ivan supported Kaori, and it became an all-out brawl for some reason, with some of my classmates curling up into a fetal position while others began to attack.

It was split into two camps - one camp with Catal, Ken, and Jenga as leaders, with the other having Kaori and Ivan as leaders. And even though I disliked Catal and Jen immensely (Jenga was just plain creepy, and made me develop a distaste for Venipedes) I still didn't fight. Not because of the Hippopotacratic Oath or anything, which I felt like breaking or the fact that I would have to fix them up afterwards, as I was keen on ignoring that too, but the fact that if Ms. Kiss had heard that I did this I would no longer be able to be her assistant, and that desire trumps my desire to punch Catal in the face with my noodle arms.

That sentiment lasted until Catal decided that I was a prime target, and proceeded to attack me even though I had somewhat unwillingly endeavored to stay out of the brawl that had developed. And as much as I hate to say it, Catal's skills are no joke. He managed to pin me to the ground within three seconds flat.

I struggled as much as possible, but in the end, type advantage and prior experience won out and I collapsed to the ground, defeated.

For a total of ten seconds.

Then I healed my injuries - because I decided that I wasn't going to forgive this insult. I was going to beat that Pawniard into the ground if it was the last thing I did, mother be damned.

Of course, it really didn't go all that well, but at this point, I really didn't care - my job, right now, was to cause as much pain to Catal as possible. Even as all the other fights slowly began simmering down around me and We were the only ones remaining fighting, Catal and I kept on brawling on the ground, me fighting as hard as I could.

It was still futile, though. His Dark typing overpowered my Fairy Typing and absolutely destroyed my Psychic Typing. His Steel typing, meanwhile, weakened my Fairy Typing even further. The result? I felt weaker just by touching him. Realistically, I knew I had no chance of beating, but I tried my hardest.

I didn't even make him grunt with exertion.

His glee with how much I was suffering only incensed me further, and I tenaciously continued my onslaught. Minutes upon minutes passed at a Slugma's pace, and I kept on landing blow after blow that never seemed to phase him.

But I finally grew an edge over the battle and managed to overpower Catal, finally. With a shout of pure rage, I knocked Catal to the ground and wrestled with him, somehow landing on top.

There I stood, victorious, with Catal lying prone below me.

Prone?

That makes no sense - Catal has taken way larger hits before and shrugged them off.

"Vinia! Catal! What are you two doing?" Oh no… That sneaky Pawniard.

"M-mr. Pix! Vinia attacked me and I was helpless to resist. Save me!" Catal pleaded, krookodile tears forming on his steel plated eyes. Mr. Pix, who had returned from Floral Fields with Rai, Stop, and Lyli in tow, had arrived at the scene of the fight.

Mr. Pix's eyes softened. He looked at Catal with unreadable eyes.

You have got to be kidding me. Surely Mr. Pix wasn't going to fall for this.

Mr. Pix turned to me, disappointment bleeding in his eyes. "Vinia…"

I can't believe it - he's actually fallen for Catal's lie. This must be a nightmare. That's the only explanation for what is happening here right now.

"You two… are coming with me. You guys are next in the Mystery Dungeon, anyway." I had been trying, and succeeding, to forget that. "Shift, you're coming too, remember?" The timid Klink, who had been one of the Pokemon to cower in a fetal position, started to sweat buckets of oil. I felt sorry for him - now he was dealing with the dangerous cesspool that was Mr. Pix, Catal, and me.

Mr. Pix had one last remark for all of the rest of my classmates. "If I see any of you make a single mark here that wasn't here before, I will send all eighteen of you into the Mystery Dungeon. This isn't a game"

None of the rest of my classmates moved a muscle.

Mr. Pix groaned, put one of his Clefable hands to his face, then motioned to me, Shift, and Catal. "You three, come with me. We're going into the Mystery Dungeon."

We all stepped across the line of no return, and the three of us were in. Immediately I could detect a shift in the atmosphere as if someone with hostile intentions was watching us. I surmised it was the Mystery Dungeon's presence - this matched the descriptions provided by the Venturing class. I shivered a little bit because it was as unsettling as it gets.

Mr. Pix faced away from us as we walked through the entryway of the Mystery Dungeon. Contrary to popular belief, the Dungeon actually can't Capture us when we are in the entryway, but we can't escape the Mystery Dungeon the way we came when we are in the Mystery Dungeon. We have to go through the Dungeon or we stay here forever.

Not an appealing prospect.

(Floral Field 1F)

Mr. Pix took a deep breath. "I know this Dungeon by heart after years of exploring its floors over and over again. By now, I'm able to walk through the entirety of the Dungeon in say… oh, I don't know, five to ten minutes, because I can tell where the Staircase is through intuition."

He knows the entire way by heart? Well, that's a relief.

(Floral Field 2F)

"Typically I let the students find their own way to the Staircase while I give them tips and hints on how to actively deal with a Mystery Dungeon. However, I'll deal with you a little differently. You're going to have to go through this Dungeon twice - once with me, and once by yourselves."

Is he insane? Did he not just see the fight Catal and I had in the field?

"You two will have to learn to work through your differences and accomplish things on your own. Even with your bad chemistry, I've been thinking about putting you two on a team together, since your strengths complement each other."

(Floral Field 3F)

"B-but Mr. Pix… what about me? My strengths don't complement their strengths" Shift timidly remarked"

"Don't worry, Shift, you won't have to go through this specific Dungeon again under my tutelage. You have yet to panic, and that was what I was mainly testing you on. While you show signs of worry, they are no more than your usual signs of worry, so I doubt the Mystery Dungeon will have much of an effect on you. A couple of real practicals, and you'll be fine. Catal and Vinia are the ones who are going to have to worry."

(Floral Field 4F)

At this point, I had become incensed. I had done my best to stop myself from attacking Ken and Catal, and I held myself back for the most part. Catal is the person most at fault here, anyway. He had caused the fight and he was the one that spurned it on. Culminating in the punch that drew me into the battle it's clear that Catal is the person that should be held responsible.

Upon looking at everyone's reaction, it was clear that everyone had heard what I said because I just had to say everything out loud.

(Floral Field 5F)

"Even if you are not to be held ultimately responsible, Vinia, you did breach a code of our conduct as well. However, I must stress that this is highly unusual, Vinia. You are usually one of the prizes of my most recent class, and I am happy to have you in my class" Mr. Pix's eyes narrowed. "But an event like this is simply unacceptable, Vinia. I had thought you were better than this." Mr. Pix looked contrite, and I knew that I did something bad, even if it was for good reasons.

That didn't mean I regretted it, though. I would do it again and again if I had a chance.

We came to the last Staircase of the Mystery Dungeon. Mr. Pix stood off to the side, and we all stepped onto the Staircase to escape this damned Dungeon.

Once we had arrived back at the clearing that had lied before Floral Fields, I saw that no one had moved from their spots that we had left them at. Ken had been fidgeting, though, the ridiculous Torchic.

As I saw all those who were terrified, I felt bad for all of those that had been unnecessarily drawn into the conflict I had with Catal. It wasn't particularly fair at all.

"While I take the next group, you guys are tasked with keeping these two" Mr. Pix pointed to both me and Catal "apart."

Like I said, not particularly fair at all.

So while the next 6 groups took their turns, I was forced to wait by myself in the clearing before Floral Field, everyone keeping their eyes on me and Catal in case things went wrong.

It was very, very boring. Being idle for what I learned later was a total of five hours was torturous, as by the end of the first hour I had run out of things to preoccupy myself with. Eventually, I decided to just meditate for as long as possible, if only to rid myself of all of the boredom.

When every group returned, they looked a little bit shaken. I guessed that Mr. Pix took them the long way around, then.

By the time the fifth group ended, Mr. Pix was looking fatigued, so we broke for lunch, then returned for the last three groups. Two hours later, everyone had gone, and it was time to return to the base so that we could be dismissed for the day and/or go to sleep.

An hour passed during the walk back to the base, and I had become truly miserable. Due to me being a Ralts, I could use my head spike to tell the general emotions of the Pokemon in my surroundings and to feel them as well. Usually, I could control this, so that I only felt positive emotions from my head spike. If the emotion was saturated in the air, however, I would absorb the emotion anyway, and I would feel it regardless.

Right now the emotion saturated in the air was misery because for many of them this was the worst time of their life. I absolutely hated it.

Luckily when we reached Jeden City it had become much, much easier, as all of the other emotions the residents were feeling diluted the feelings of misery.

And that is what happened today at the Mystery Dungeon.

Once we had returned to the base and were dismissed for the day, the emotion-sensing became even easier, as only a few miserable people were left from the Dungeon expedition today since many of them went home.

While the rest of my classmates, like Ken, Catal, Jenga, Kaori, and Ivan, went to rest for the day at their room, since they stayed at the base like I did, I went to help Ms. Kiss. It would only be for a couple of hours, as today was already falling late, but since I had nothing else to do for the day I decided to check in.

I walked through the halls and arrived at the door of the medical bay. I put my hand on the door of the medical bay and prepared to open it, but before I could I heard voices. While I'm normally not an eavesdropper, I decided to make an exception for today. I'm tired and curious, and that's a really fun combination.

"... you don't know what you're talking about, Ilera. That Litwick is a danger - you have to keep a close eye on him, or he might attack you!" Was that Ms. Kaili, Captain Falcon's secretary? Why would she be over here?

"Milla, Tom isn't a danger - my Heal Bell worked on him, and it only works if both parties consider themselves allies. If he was truly our enemy, Milla, my Heal Bell would have a wildly different reaction on him."And that was Ms. Kiss! What are Ms. Kaili and Ms. Kiss talking about?

"Maybe you Heal Bell is wrong this time, Ilera. Either way, you have to keep an eye on him. If you don't, then I will. Captain Falcon approves of this, too." Ms. Kaili said, sounding as though the conversation was over. "I will see you at dinner, Ilera. I hope you make the right choice." With that, the door I had been leaning on to eavesdrop had opened and I came face to face with Ms. Kaili, who proceeded to ignore me as I fell to the ground, walking away in what looked like a stormy mood.

"Vinia, what's are you doing on the ground?" Ms. Kiss had seen me on the ground and was looking rather cross with me. I had the decency to look at embarrassed as she gazed upon me sprawled across the floor of the hallway.

"I came for my shift today, Ms. Kiss," I said nervously, tapping my arms together.

Ms. Kiss sighed. "Tell me everything, Vinia. You look awful and I want to know the full story." Wow, that certainly made me feel _much_ better.

I told her the full story (some parts slightly grudgingly). By the end of the small tale, she had a full-blown frown on her face. I was instantly reminded of why I didn't get into the fight, to begin with, and my shame grew tenfold.

"Vinia… why did you forget the Hippopotacratic Oath" A stern look appeared on her face. "You're only supposed to hurt your enemies, Vinia. Why did you attack Catal, when he's your classmate?"

At this point, I realized I was trapped between a Geodude and a hard place. I could tell Ms. Kiss the truth, the fact that I had attacked Catal because he angered me to the point of retaliation, which would deeply disappoint Ms. Kiss ( she had a higher opinion of me than that) or I could lie and maybe convince her.

… ah, who am I kidding?

I proceeded to tell her the truth because I'm going to keep some shred of dignity for myself. "He attacked me, Ms. Kiss. I couldn't hold myself back, Ms. Kiss - I simply couldn't."

"Yet when you repelled him, why did you continue your attack? He knew that you weren't a sitting Ducklett, Vinia, and he probably wouldn't have attacked you much more. However, by the end of the fight, you were wailing on him without any regard for your, or his, safety. I didn't teach you this way, Vinia." Ms. Kiss's words were biting and acidic, and I felt the weight of each of her words. She was right - even though I was justified in my first attack, I shouldn't have continued the fight. I had failed my duty as a Venturing student, and especially as a Healer in training.

I bowed my head, contrite. "I'm so sorry, Ms. Kiss. Please accept my apology."

Ms. Kiss sighed. "It's alright, Vinia." The room was silent for a time, as the guilt washed over me. To distract myself, I decided to ask Ms. Kiss about something.

"What were you and Ms. Kaili talking about earlier?" I asked, trying to distract us both from my massive blunder.

"It doesn't matter, Vinia, so shut up!" Ms. Kiss snapped at me, anger flashing in her eyes as she looked at me with contempt. "Didn't your parents teach you not to eavesdrop?"

The room then became silent, and you could hear a pin drop.

Ms. Kiss's eyes widened, then she began to stammer. " I-I'm sorry, Vinia. I wasn't thinking."

"It's okay, don't worry, I'll be okay." Thinking about my parents was always hard… especially my mom. Ms. Kiss looked miserable, making me assume she felt sorrow for what she believed happened to my parents. I don't plan on ever correcting her.

Ms. Kiss growled, and she slammed her hand into her table in anger. "What is wrong with me today? First I physically attack a patient, then I verbally attack you." Woah Woah Woah, hang on a minute.

"Ms. Kiss, you attacked a patient?" Usually, Ms. Kiss was the nicest of Healers, always with a smile on her face (she and Mr. Pix are probably related). Her attacking a _patient_ is unheard of - if I heard anyone else say it, I would have rejected it on principle.

Ms. Kiss nodded, shame written clearly across her face. "Yes - I was so worried about you in the Mystery Dungeon that my judgment was clouded and I Flung a pen at a patient to test his pain tolerance."

Wow, that was… wow. "Ms. Kiss, I…". Then I remembered something. "Hey! Ms. Kiss, you broke the Hippopotacratic Oath!"

Ms. Kiss blushed, then laughed. "Well, I suppose I did." The room was silent for a time before we suddenly keeled over in laughter. All of the tension in the room suddenly drained away in our insane hysterical joy, and I felt a large deal of my stress disappear. Of course, we shouldn't be laughing about a hurt patient, but I think we've crossed the point of no return already.

"Well, that's in the past, so let's forget about it." I offered with a smile. Ms. Kiss nodded, and all seemed right. "So, how was the patient's pain tolerance?"

"Humongous, Vinia. Coupled with the damage he had already received, the Fling should have been enough to knock him out cold. Instead, he took it with a grimace and felt so little pain to forgive me immediately afterward."

"That's really impressive - where is he now?"I asked, curious.

"He's in the back, resting from one of my Heal Bells. He had some poison in his system, really deep inside, so I had to extract it with the Heal Bell."

"Oh…" with my question answered, and neither of us very willing to do our job apparently, I continued the conversation. "So, uh, what were you and Ms. Kaili talking about earlier?"

Ms. Kiss sighed, looking tired. "We were talking about the patient from earlier - the Litwick with that monstrous pain tolerance. The Litwick, Tom, apparently needs to be… closely watched. While I don't agree with the reasons why, it came from Captain Falcon, so we're going to do it."

"Really? Other than his pain tolerance, what's so special about him?"

"He apparently has total amnesia, except for a basic vocabulary and ability to talk. Milla is apparently suspicious that he is hiding some of his ability and that he is in league with a known criminal, but I sincerely doubt it. My Heal Bell wouldn't have worked for him otherwise." Ms. Kiss poked at me with a hard look. "We're still going to keep an eye on him, though."

"Oh… okay." I didn't have much to say to that. This thing seemed like a whole mess, though. Well, there was one thing. "How are we going to keep an eye on him, though?"

"Captain Falcon assigned him for the Venturing course - he'll be one of your classmates soon, along with an Eevee named Glacia. They're both resting back there." Ms. Kiss sighed. "You are the one who is going to keep an eye on them, Vinia."

… well, I didn't expect to have this amount of responsibility dumped on me right off of the bat. "I - Ms. Kiss…"

"Don't worry, Vinia - just keep an eye on them and tell me anything interesting you learn about them. I'll figure out what to tell Milla if you find anything out." Ms. Kiss got up from where she had been sitting. "Either way, we have some patients that need treatment and we've kept them waiting long enough. Come one, Vinia - I'll need your Healing energy to help power up a Wish to heal a patient." She pushed the curtain aside as she walked into the room where the patients slept. "Come on.

I quickly followed Ms. Kiss into the other room, almost stumbling over myself in the process. Once I stepped into the room, I saw the patients Ms. Kiss was talking about. There were some Pokemon I had seen around the base from time to time - a Prinplup who was absorbed in a fairly intimidating book, a dozing Vanillish, and a sleeping Krokorok and Luxio. Then there were those that I hadn't seen before, like a shiny Vanillite who was obliviously playing with some toys Ms. Kiss kept around for laughs.

Most notable were the sleeping Litwick and Eevee Ms. Kiss had mentioned. And while the Eevee looked fairly unremarkable, the Litwick was, for a lack of a better word, utterly beaten and bruised. He had burn marks all over him, which I thought was impossible for a fire type, and had several stab marks across his body. If Ms. Kiss was right and this Litwick, who was a Ghost-type, managed to withstand a Fling with these injuries, his level of pain tolerance must be truly through the roof.

Ms. Kiss eagerly rubbed her hands together. "Alright, Vinia, prepare some Healing energy for me - we won't be using a modified Heal pulse this time - we're using a full-blown Wish on Tom."

If it were any other amount and severity of injuries, I would have thought that to be overkill. Now, I'm going to wonder if it's going to be enough if it's going to heal Tom.

I prepared the pink energy I would normally use for Heal Pulse, which is one of my best moves. Ms. Kiss began gathering a yellowish energy of her own, and stars began to appear in her eyes - a classic sign of Wish if I'm correct. Soon, I brought my healing energy to Ms. Kiss's and pushed it into her forming Wish. Ms. Kiss took a deep breath, then clapped her hands together and collapsed all of the healing energy into a star, then threw that star at Tom. Once it came into contact with Tom, it disappeared. Thirty seconds later, a light began pouring out of Tom's wounds, and his previously labored breathing eased.

Ms. Kiss sat down in exhaustion and wiped some sweat off of her brow. "Wow, that was exhausting. I'd rate it as one of my harder heals, actually." She pointed toward her medicine cabinet. "Vinia; would you please be a dear and fetch me some water?"

Exhausted at the effort I had to put into the Wish, I shakily nodded. I tottered over to the medicine cabinet and poured Ms. Kiss a cup of water, then stumbled back over to Ms. Kiss. However, I tripped, and barely managed to right myself. Unfortunately, I spilled a little bit of the water on Tom, who frowned in his sleep.

Ms. Kiss cursed, then took a towel from her side and gave it to me. "Vinia, do you mind wiping the water off of Tom? The water might interfere with his recovery."

I nodded, then slowly took the towel and began wiping the water off of Tom. As I wiped the water off of Tom, my noodly arm accidentally brushed against a bit of Tom's wax.

An electric feeling burst through me, and I shuddered a little bit. I strangely felt closer to Tom, of all things. I decided that I was too tired, and after wiping the rest of the water off of Tom I told Ms. Kiss that very thing. She nodded, apparently exhausted, then wished me a good night. Apparently, I hadn't noticed the sun had set outside as I worked.

As I left for my room, I reflected on what had happened today. Some of it was good, a lot of it was bad, but most of it was just tiring.

'Of course', I remarked as I truly thought about it, 'the most interesting part of today was, all things, Tom.' His pain tolerance truly impressed both me and Ms. Kiss, and that strange sensation I felt when touching him awakened my curiosity. I can't wait to see him, awake, tomorrow.


	6. 6 - A Tour of a Time

(Tom - Medical Bay)

Ow… everything hurts… is what I would be saying if I didn't feel surprisingly good. For a change, _nothing was hurting_. My back didn't have that constant ache in it, my skin didn't painfully tingle anymore, and my… "lungs"... if I still had them, were surprisingly clean. I just spent a couple of minutes in the morning air, just taking everything in. Everything felt nice, and I didn't want this to end.

"Well, it seems you two have woken up, then. How are you two?" A polite feminine voice asked out. I recognized it as Ms. Kiss, that weird flying fairy that was supposed to be our nurse.

I didn't really know what to think about her. On one hand, she had stabbed me with that pen that had been glowing black. That had really hurt. It made me tear up a little bit and judging from Glacia's reaction it was really dangerous. But then she took all of that poison out of my body. I had a nice nap then.

Of course, I did have that dream about drowning, which, thinking about it right now, sent shivers up my spine.

I would have to reserve judgment on Ms. Kiss. She seemed nice, for the most part, but her hurting me sort of soured our budding relationship. Let's just see where goes from here.

Having made my decision I opened my eyes and sat up. I reveled in the non-pain I felt - was this how I was supposed to usually feel? If so, sign me up.

"I feel fine, Ms. Kiss," I answered as politely as I could. "How do you feel?" I added, almost as an afterthought. No one said I could be polite, you know.

Ms. Kiss gave a small chuckle. "I'm doing fine, Tom". She brought out a small clipboard, the one that I saw yesterday, and made a small note on it. She then peered over at the bed next to me. I turned my head to see Glacia sleeping soundly on the bed, snoring slightly. She kicked a couple of times and mumbled a few words, but other than that she seemed content.

"Since it seems Glacia is still going to be occupied by her dreams for a small while yet, Tom, I think that it's time we get to your physical exams".

So we started on the physical exams. There were a lot of the exams, and when I say a lot I mean a _lot_. Ms. Kiss checked my height and weight, the viscosity of my wax (whatever that was), the dryness of my wick, my overall shape, and my overall appearance. Luckily the exams themselves took only a measly thirty minutes, which were rather boring at first, but slowly grew interesting as she taught me some basic Litwick biology.

I learned that we need to light our flames every day, as the combustion of the air was a way we Litwick's got energy. She told me that while wild and feral Litwick's also absorbed Pokemon's souls with their flames, the civilized Litwicks (like me and every other Litwick that was part of society) were forbidden from using their soul absorption capabilities.

"So the other civilized Litwick's I meet won't try to suck out my soul?" I clarified. I had been curious and wanted to meet other Litwicks - see what they thought of me. The one reason I didn't bother making any plans to make any overtures to meet the other Litwicks is that I thought that they would suck out my soul if I had met them.

"You're a Ghost-Type - they wouldn't be able to drag out your soul in a million years. Your instinctive grasp of souls would make it next to impossible for others to suck out your soul."

Well, that was a relief.

"Speaking of the fact that you're a Ghost Type, I'm afraid that you will be mostly alone here in the Venture Base in that regard. Captain Falcon generally despises Ghost-Types, with some exceptions. It's probably because of the fact that Ghost Types are completely immune to Fighting-type moves - he has an instinctive dislike of Ghost Types because of it. Honestly, I'm surprised that he even allowed you into the Venture Base, much less let you into the Venturing Course." Her eyes grew shifty at this, and I spared a moment of curiosity to wonder exactly _what_ she was hiding.

"Of course, Captain Falcon does have his opinions change depending on what Ghost you are. He is particularly vicious toward Ground/Ghost Types like Palossand and Golurk and Water/Ghost types like Jellicent. Again, type advantages." There were a lot of Pokemon names in there that I didn't recognize. Now that I thought about it, I didn't really know any of the Pokemon names at all.

"However, he is much more tolerant of the dual types which he shares or is strong against. For instance, he conducted a cordial meeting with a Dhelmise of another Venture Base once. Since you are a Ghost/Fire typing, you share a type with him and that makes him much more tolerant of you than he would normally be of a Ghost Type."

"There is another Ghost in the Venture Base, though. In fact, she is of your evolutionary line."

"Evolutionary Line?" What on Earth is evolution?

Ms. Kiss stared at me for an uncomfortable second, which made me fidget a little bit. She then sighed, as though resigned to teaching me, then explained. "Evolution is one of the processes of growth for a Pokemon. They store up energy within themselves since birth in ready for the evolution, and when the conditions are met for the evolution they instantly transform into a whole new species of Pokemon of their evolutionary line."

"What do you mean, 'instantly transform'? Is it like Henka's transformations?" I asked, curious.

Ms. Kiss grew pensive for a second. "Henka was the Ditto that Team Link faced, right?" At my nod, she chuckled. "Well, not exactly. Unlike other transformations, like a Ditto's transformation or a Form Change, Evolution is a permanent process. Once you've evolved there is no going back. For instance, I'm a Togetic." She quickly flew past the curtain to the room we were in yesterday and came back with a couple of pictures, with one that looked a lot like her.

"We look a lot like these. I evolved from a Togepi, which looks like these." She showed me a picture of something that looked a bit like Ms. Kiss, having the strange shapes, head spikes, and hands and feet she did. However, there were as many differences as there were similarities. The Togepi picture had no neck or legs or wings and was much rounder than Ms. Kiss was.

"Later in life, if I find a special stone, or if my Mom will ever bother giving me hers, I will evolve into a Togekiss, which looks like this." She brought out another new picture. This one looked much more like a bird than it did a fairy (like Ms. Kiss resembled). The Togekiss's hands completely merged into the wings, which had grown in size. It looked much more different, looking almost completely different from the Togetic.

Ms. Kiss - oh, so _that's_ where her name came from - snickered. "Dramatic shift, huh. Well, that's nothing. You should see some other changes that result from evolution. Take your friend Glacia, for instance." She pointed to the sleeping Glacia. "Her species, Eevee, has the largest evolutionary line of them all, capping so far at eight possible evolutions."

My eyes boggled. "Eight?"

Ms. Kiss nodded. "Eight. She can turn into a Vaporeon, Flareon, Jolteon, Espeon, Umbreon, Leafeon, Glaceon, and Sylveon. She had a lot of choice in the future in who she'll be."

"Choice?" I was confused again. "What do you mean, 'choice'? Doesn't she have to transform into all of them?"

Ms. Kiss looked shocked, then laughed. "Well, I suppose I said something somewhat inaccurate when I said that evolution was a line. While that's true for Pokemon like you and me, Eevee like Glacia have more of an evolutionary web. They can choose exactly what they evolve into. Eevee can become a Vaporeon or a Sylveon." Then almost as an afterthought, she added something else. "She can't become both, though. Like I said, evolution is permanent, so once she evolves she'll have evolved permanently."

"Oh…" there wasn't much I could've said to that. Soon Glacia would have to make a choice that would impact her future a lot if evolution changed you as much as Ms. Kiss had shown. "What do I evolve from?"

"You don't evolve from anything, Tom. You're a Litwick, and you were born a Litwick. So you will evolve into things but you won't evolve from things."

The thing was, I wasn't born as a Litwick. I was born as a human.

… you know, it's only now that I've just realized this. Subconsciously I've thought myself as a human this entire time, but it's only until now that I've actually recognized this. Actually, now that I think about it, that's the only thing I haven't been told. Even my name someone had to tell me. I remember _nothing_. What _happened_ to me?

Ms. Kiss, apparently oblivious to my existential crisis, continued onward with her lecture. "Meanwhile, you evolve into two different pokemon, one after the other. If you become strong and experienced enough you will evolve into a Lampent," she showed a picture of what looked like a black and purple gas lamp with eyes and two curly arms. "After you evolve into a Lampent, you're going to need to find a Dusk Stone before you can evolve into a Chandelure." She then held up a picture of what looked like a chandelier that had eyes and purple flames coming out of it. It looked a little funny.

Shaking myself out of my stupor, I began to consider what I had just learned. Apparently, once I got strong enough, I would turn from a Litwick into a Lampent, and then I would turn into a Chandelure once I found a… "Dusk Stone".

I honestly didn't know what to feel about that. While I was getting accustomed to being a Litwick rather quickly, I still had no idea about who I really was. Maybe I would be able to find that out with Glacia, assuming it comes up in the way while we find out how to bring her back home.

"There's a Lampent named Alice who is a member of Team Zelda. She'll be the one you're going to want to look for if you want training in your ghostly abilities at this Venture Base. Other than her you might find a couple of Ghost Types scattered across the town, but Captain Falcon had made some measures with his weight to limit the number of Ghost Types that could be found here in Jeden City. His status as the Captain of this Venture Base gives him a lot of leeway with things, after all."

Thinking about I might want to visit Alice, then. She might be able to explain a lot of things about me, after all, since she had to evolve into a Lampent from being a Litwick.

At that moment, Glacia groaned next to me and slowly pulled herself up. She blearily blinked. "T… Tom? How are you?" She then yawned loudly as she rubbed her eyes. "W...Where are we?"

"Dear, you're in the medical bay of the local Venture Base." Ms. Kiss explained. She went to the back of the room and brought what looked like a glass of water. "Here, you'll need this. The treatment I gave you yesterday had done something awful on your throat."

As Glacia glugged the water she was given down, I thought about why Ms. Kiss hadn't given me a glass of water. Then, laid with the image of me drinking water, my mind vehemently protested and told me to get as far away from the glass of water as possible. I stamped down on that urge with all my might - apparently, my typing has more control over my mind than I thought it did.

Then, after a short explanation from Ms. Kiss to Glacia, we began her physical exam. Her exam was not at all like mine was - instead of measuring things like wax consistency and viscosity and overall shape, Ms. Kiss measured Glacia's body temperature, speed, strength, as well as her eyes, nose, ears, etc. It did make a measure of sense, of course - she's a weird dog thing, and I'm a candle, so we would naturally have different tests for our physical capabilities.

After an hour or two of tests - she had a lot more tests for Glacia than she did for me - she had finally finished the remainder of her tests. After spending ten minutes privately looking the results in her room (she gave them a couple of children's books to read while she studied the results. They were nice, he guessed), she returned and gave them the results of the examination.

"Well, Tom, you seem to be in near perfect health, as far as I know. While I have had some experience with the Litwick line thanks to Alice - who is a Lampent staying at the base" she added at Glacia's confused look. "I haven't been able to study many Ghost Types. Their physiology is still mostly a mystery to me, so you're going to have to talk to Alice about that. Glacia, though, I can tell much more about."

She turned to Glacia. "Glacia dear, while you are healthy, having no diseases or serious debilitating injuries, there is something I am relatively concerned about." At this, Glacia began to visibly panic, going slightly pale through her fur and sweating bullets. "Your muscles seem to be atrophied - they are weak and flimsy. Your performance was well under the average expected of your species. Your species can run, jump, and exercises for hours if need be, but you tired out after ten minutes of strenuous continuous work. Are there any conditions the Venture Base or I should be notified about?"

Glacia scoffed. "Is that it?" She asked derisively. "Ms. Kiss narrowed her eyes, and even I could sense a conflict brewing.

"'Is that it?' Glacia, please be serious. Your life is at stake here - if you aren't at least average in your capabilities you will do poorly in Mystery Dungeons. You won't be able to fight for yourself or even protect yourself when you need to." Ms. Kiss explained, looking peeved at Glacia's backtalk. "This is not just my concern - if I don't know what's up with your body, I won't be able to clear you for the course."

Glacia continued to shoot a baleful glare at Ms. Kiss. However, she slowly relented and spoke in low, soft tones. "I… haven't been a very active Eevee. I never really trained my muscles - I have the strength for Tackles and Quick Attacks, but for the most part, I educated myself."

Ms. Kiss blinked. "What kind of a lifestyle have you lived, Glacia. It's natural for Eevees like yourself to work their bodies to strengthen them for evolution, or at the very least play to keep the muscles active. Why were you living such a sedentary lifestyle?"

Glacia's eyes clouded over a little bit. "May I not answer that question?" Her voice was beginning to sound weak. She must be remembering her family, then. She told me she was a princess two days ago when we first met. As far as I can remember, princesses aren't very physically active. Why does she want to hide it from Ms. Kiss, though?

Ms. Kiss studied Glacia for a second, then nodded. "Alright - I don't really need to know that. What your life was like before you came here is none of my concern, frankly. If it was just a sedentary lifestyle that was atrophying your muscles, then that will quickly go away with a couple of weeks of hard work. Eevee bodies are made to strengthen themselves, not to the level of Fighting Types, no, but to strengthen themselves for a possible evolution."

Glacia smiled, apparently pleased. With a flourish, Ms. Kiss checked off a couple of boxes on the sheet of paper she had been writing on. "And… Done!" Ms. Kiss tore off the pieces of paper on the clipboard. She cracked her long Togetic neck.

"Ms. Kiss?" A sweet feminine voice rang out. Glacia and I turned to the curtain, where a new pokemon appeared. This new Pokemon looked fairly humanoid (I can still recognize humans, then.), except that she - I think it was a she - had pasty white skin and a green bowl cut, with two red horns, one coming out of the forehead and one coming out of the back of her head. Her legs were somewhat triangular, with a little wispy thing coming out the back.

"Oh, Vinia, classes are done?" Ms. Kiss turned to female humanoid Pokemon, clearly recognizing her.

"Ah, yes, Ms. Kiss. I've come to work today." The girl responded.

"Good, good… Oh, Tom, Glacia, meet my assistant, Vinia. She provided me with a lot of the energy I needed to heal your wounds, Tom. Without her, you would still be in massive pain."

"O-oh… thank you… Vinia?" I tried to answer. Vinia, meanwhile, gritted her teeth and refused to meet my eyes, her face flushing. Wow, now I've really gotten off to a bad start.

"You're… welcome…" Vinia ground out, looking at everywhere but me. I wonder what I did badly to set her off. I mean, she looks like she can't even stand to be near me…

"Ms. Kiss, does Vinia have a Type that doesn't work well with one of my types?" I asked Ms. Kiss, concerned. I had just remembered what Captain Falcon's reactions to the Ghost Type had been, and I wondered if Vinia had a type that also reacted badly to my types.

"I have the Psychic type - it's weak to your Ghost Type." Vinia haltingly spoke, turning to face Ms. Kiss instead of me. "It's not a problem though. I have no issues with Pokemon of types that my types don't like." Somehow, instinctually, I knew this was a lie. I don't know how I knew, but I could tell that Vinia did indeed have problems with Pokemon that had incompatible types.

Well, I would have to change her opinion of me, then. I would have to be as nice as possible so that she would be able to look past that instinctive hatred of me.

"Nice to meet you, Glacia." Vinia shook Glacia's paw rather forcefully as if she was in pain. Glacia was clearly not amused, judging by the scowl on her face. She is probably used to Pokemon being much more respectful than Vinia was being.

"Now that introductions are out of the way, I'm going to give you your assignment for today, Vinia." All three of our heads snapped toward Ms. Kiss, who was looking somewhat jolly for some reason.

"Assignment, Ms. Kiss?" Vinia asked, confused. "Don't we just usually wait in here for patients to come in and take care of them?"

"We usually do that, yes, but today we have these new recruits. Remember what I told you yesterday, Vinia? They still haven't properly been shown around the base yet, so while I quickly go and send these to Milla for authentication you need to go and introduce the base to them." She took her clipboard and began flying to the door.

As she was about to cross the threshold leading to the rest of the base, she turned around again. "Vinia, just show them the main facilities of the base for now - the cafeteria, the library, the residential area, the classrooms, the supply room, the arena, etc. Oh, and make sure to introduce them to the rest of the classmates, or at least the classmates that you guys will be staying with." With that, she crossed out of the threshold and out of sight.

The medical bay was silent for a minute. No one really wanted to move.

"... So, this is the medical bay?" Glacia started off, and I thanked her within my heart for that - the silence was getting to be unbearable.

"Yeah, this is the medical bay. Pokemon come here for checkups, diagnoses, and treatments." Vinia rattled off tiredly, as though she had to say this a million times before. "Ms. Kiss generally runs this place, and I'm her chief assistant." Vinia puffed out her chest slightly, as if proud of that fact. Glacia disdainfully sniffed. I clapped - or at least, I tried to.

"I've been learning many healing techniques and have been amassing lots of biological knowledge. Of course, there's a lot I still don't know, but I probably know more than _you_." She leered at Glacia, and Glacia began to growl - this was beginning to slowly devolve, I had to do something.

"That sounds great." Oh geez, that did nothing. Well, nothing good at least. Glacia just turned to me, hurt shining in her eyes while Vinia stonily turned away from me. "U-uh, anyway, where are we going next?" I was going to be quiet for the remainder of this tour because somehow I knew that opening my mouth was a really, _really_ bad thing to do.

"Let's leave for the main room, then." So we quietly left, Glacia fuming and Vinia upset (as far as I could tell). I was engulfed in shame - I was really messing things up, huh.

We left the medical bay and entered the tunnel. We walked through the tunnel and entered the large area we had asked directions from the Volcarona from before.

Vinia went to each of the tunnels and pointed at them in turn.

She pointed to the tunnel on the third floor, which was the only tunnel on the third floor, incidentally. "This is the way to the mission rooms, classrooms, and administrative area. We'll be going here for classes with Ms. Gaw, who is the instructor for recruits like us. She teaches us the theoretical aspect of Venturing, making sure we know the bare basics of Pokemon before getting into the nitty and gritty of going into Mystery Dungeons. Once we become Venturers, we'll be getting missions from here."

We went into the third-floor tunnel. We passed by the classroom we were in yesterday, where we began registration with Mrs. Gaw. We also passed by a couple of offices, as I heard some Pokemon shouting behind them. Of course, I didn't really think it was administrative work, but who knows what could happen?

As we passed by the offices, Vinia chose to clarify what was happening for us. "These Pokemon run our budget and oversee most of what happens in the Base. While Captain Falcon has the ultimate authority, he can't run everything by himself. He has to be the one who listens to reports from Venture Teams, and he has to train to keep his position, not to mention any other problems that arise, so we have some Pokemon that work on the day-to-day life of the base. Whatever you do, though, don't talk to them if you don't have to. For some reason, their work makes them extremely Krabby."

We left the third-floor tunnel and went to the second floor of the building.

Vinia pointed at the tunnel on the second floor, which was also the only tunnel on its floor as well. "This is the tunnel that leads to the residential quarters. It's where we all sleep. Every Exploration team has their own individual room made by Drilbur and Excadrill, while the recruits are spread into two rooms, for boys and girls." She then took a tired look at Glacia. "That means that you will be sleeping with me, along with Kaori, Ivan, and Merla."

"Isn't Ivan a boy's name?" It slipped out of me before I could control myself.

Vinia nodded. "Yeah, Ivan is a boy's name, and Ivan is really touchy about that. Whatever you do, don't mention that, as she'll get really, really angry about that." Note to self, don't talk to Ivan about her name.

"So then Tom will be sharing his living space with the boys, then."

Vinia nodded. "Yeah - but he can spend time with you at all times and in all places you guys can access, except for the living quarters. You guys will probably want to be a Team together, once we all graduate in a month or so."

Glacia's eyes widened. "A M-Month?!" Right, she wanted to go back home as quickly as possible.

"Yeah, a month. Don't worry, I've only been here for a couple of months myself and I managed to get to be the top student. If you guys are properly studious you'll be able to catch up in no time. I only had to spend a day myself catching up. Naetle, another of our classmates, joined the hero course a months ago and managed to catch up in a week. The course is only nine or so months long, so as long as you study right you'll be able to catch up within two weeks or so."

Glacia was frozen solid.

Misinterpreting Glacia's face as worry at not being able to take the course, Vinia was quick to console her. "Oh, don't worry Glacia. If you guys need help I'll be there to tutor you. Of course, it'll have to be after my stint with Ms. Kiss and after I do my homework."

Glacia was still silent.

I coughed nervously. "So, next tunnel?" I asked hopefully.

Vinia shook her head. "I still have to show you guys exactly where we are sleeping. Take care to memorize the route - not everyone is willing to be a tour guide, after all."

Remembering the Volcarona from yesterday, we nodded. Don't want to cross paths with him again, after all.

After three minutes of winding our way through the tunnels on the second floor, passing by some strangely decorated doors (I would give you a million bucks if I had any that the seventh door we passed belonged to Team Link - you should have _seen_ the motif. Sand, Ice, and Bolts of Lightning, with some poorly placed images of skulls Rokka probably put in when he was bored), we got to a pair of wooden doors.

Vinia pointed to the door on the right. "That's where we girls sleep," she then pointed to the door on the left. "And that's where you boys sleep." Vinia turned her head and began to shove me toward the door. Her touch was softer than I expected, although the nice feeling was undercut by Vinia's palpable shudders.

"Talk to the guys in there. I've never managed a decent conversation with any of them… so good luck!" With a particularly large shudder and shove the pushed me through the door, which for some inexplicable reason began glowing pink and opened on its own. I felt a light and airy presence enter beforehand though, which had emanated from Vinia. Maybe it was one of her powers or something.

I tripped through the door and landed face first on the floor of the boys' room. I slowly picked myself up and took a look around. The room seemed empty, for the most part. There were a couple of posters on the wall which made me blush for some reason (that picture of that Pokemon made me bothered for some reason, but I didn't feel hostile toward it or anything).

There were a couple of twig beds like the kind we had made for the night with Gel, but nothing like the quality of the beds in the medical bay. Other than that, there were no windows or anything, which made me realize I was a _little_ claustrophobic. I began to feel a little nervous and realized that I probably wouldn't be sleeping comfortably in this room any time soon.

"Hey… who are you…?" a dry, wheezy voice coughed out behind me. I whipped around to find a weird red, green, and black bug Pokemon in the doorway, with red feelers and a large hump on its segmented back. It looked like it was half asleep or something.

"... Hello?" I slowly spoke as if unsure. The bug Pokemon didn't react. "Who… am I…?" My mind wasn't working spectacularly for some reason. "I'm Tom, a Litwick." I started off. What should I tell him? "I'm a new recruit for the Venturing Course - I'll be your classmate from now on."

The bug Pokemon blinked. "Oh… I'm Jenga the Venipede." Jenga studied me for a minute before yawning. "Say, do you have any problem with me smoking some Nip?"

"Nip? What's Nip?"

"Good enough for me." He took what I said as an approval. He reached out from under a bed and pulled out what looked like a pile of leaves or grass. He faced his tail toward it and… stung it? An acidic substance shot out of his tail and sprayed onto the leaves. Then, faced with the smoking pile of acid and leaves, he sniffed it. "Looks like it's ready." He then ate the pile whole and burped. A pink waft of smoke came out of his mouth. "Oh, that's goooood." Jenga moaned.

Abit of the smoke came wafting toward me. Some of it touched me, and I coughed - it was noxious. It smelled like everything bad and rotten in the world rolled into one, then cremated, with the ashes being smoked afterward.

"Yeah, secondhand Nip will do that to you. I suggest you leave - I plan to be here for a while and the Nip's smoke will take a while to leave." He then continued to chew the strange pile of leaves. More pink smoke came out, and I bolted - I was not going to be in here very much, if at all. I'd take my chances sleeping outside instead.

I slammed the door behind me, keeping as much Nip smoke behind me as I could. I spent a couple of minutes just breathing the nice, clean air outside our room. That was _awful_. Now I know what Ms. Kiss meant when she said we needed clean air for our combustion - I felt choked _and_ hungry in there. Combine that with my apparent claustrophobia and I'm never going in there again.

Luckily Glacia and Vinia came out a minute later, looking relatively happy. I _wish_ I could say the same for myself.

"Tom, what happened? You look awful." Glacia worriedly asked as she and Vinia took a good look at me. I was leaning on the stone wall in exhaustion.

"J-Jenga was smoking Nip in there." I coughed a little bit, and some pink smoke came out. Luckily I felt much better after that.

"N-NIP!" Vinia and Glacia looked thunderstruck - and I wondered what was the matter. Sure, the Nip smelled bad (why would _anyone_ want any, that's my question), but it didn't seem all that evil like the way they were acting.

Glacia immediately stuck her nose to the crack under the door, then recoiled. "He's right, there is definitely Nip in there."

"Oh dear lord Arceus, what are we going to do, what are we going to do…" Vinia looked incredibly nervous, wringing out her arms.

"We have to tell Ms. Kiss or somebody at the very least," Glacia told Vinia.

Vinia nodded. "Right, right… Let's finish the tour, so I can go tell Ms. Kiss about the Nip in there. They can risk their lives a little longer, after all. They seem to have been doing it for a while, anyway. Do you know where they kept the Nip leaves?"

"They kept the leaves behind a bed," I told her, growing more and more concerned. "What's Nip?"

We began walking out of the tunnel. As we walked Glacia took the opportunity to help clarify things for me. "Nip is a dangerous substance, Tom. I don't know exactly what Nip does to you or why anyone would use it, but it's a very, very dangerous substance. That's the only thing I know about it, along with its awful smell."

Vinia nodded. "I know about as much as Glacia does. It's an illegal substance - they're not supposed to have any. Ms. Kiss refuses to let me study the effects until I'm old enough, too."

We had reached the main room again. Now we were safely away from the Nip I had begun to calm down and enjoy myself again. We headed down the stairs and reached the ground floor. There were five tunnels leading from the main room.

Vinia pointed to the leftmost tunnel. "That way is the library. It has the books the Venturers have managed to collect and copy. We have our textbooks there. Of course, you don't need the textbooks, since some Pokemon can't manipulate pages, but they are there if you can access them." We went through the tunnel. There were no branches off of this tunnel - it was perfectly straight.

As we walked Glacia asked Vinia a question. "The inside of the Base looks a lot different than the outside of the base. Why is that?"

Vinia promptly answered her. "The Base's tunnels that go underground. It's not very noticeable inside the tunnels, but most of the time you're underground. Most of the tunnels lead slightly downward. Even entering the Base goes downward - only the third floor is above ground. The old matron of the medical bay, a Mismagius, laid an illusion over the window so that her diurnal patients would feel at pleasure. She left once Captain Falcon became captain, though. With proper supports by some of the Timburr line, anything is possible." she finished. Glacia was apparently content. I barely understood half of what she said.

At the end of the tunnel was a strangely pleasant room. Torches flickered with a nice light in the open space as bookshelves lined the room. A familiar looking pokemon was napping at the counter and was apparently having some nice dreams. It took me a minute for the memory to snap into place - that was a Togekiss, just like the picture Ms. Kiss showed me.

"Hello, Mrs. Kiss," Vinia asked politely. Mrs. Kiss snapped her eyes open and looked frantically around. When she spotted us, though, she sighed in relief. "Vinia, I wasn't expecting you. How are you today?" Mrs. Kiss smiled. "You must be the Litwick and Eevee Ms. Gaw told me about - she told me to prepare some study materials for you."

"Do you have any relation to Ms. Kiss, Mrs. Kiss?" I asked because there had to be some sort of relationship there.

"Oh, so you've met my daughter then. She's such a fine lady, isn't she." She radiated such a motherly aura that I honestly didn't know what to say.

"Glacia, Tom, go look at some books. I have to tell Mrs. Kiss about what you saw and what we smelled earlier." With that Vinia and Mrs. Kiss began a hushed discussion. Soon Mrs. Kiss's eyes hardened and I decided to move and look at some books with Glacia.

As we perused the shelves, Glacia whispered a comment at me. "Say, Tom, didn't Vinia say she was going to tell Ms. Kiss about the Nip after the tour instead of Mrs. Kiss during it?"

"Does it matter?"

"No."

Eventually, Vinia came back for us. She was looking furious. When Glacia breached the topic (at my nudging) Vinia let out a burst of weak curses, then proceeded to explain. "Mrs. Kiss that nothing will probably be done, except for the confiscation of the Nip."

Glacia and I stared at her. "W-what do you mean?" I almost fearfully asked her.

"Jenga is friends with Ken, the son of Captain Falcon. They've skirted by a lot of rules in the past. Chances say that influence will allow them to stay, along with _Catal_." She spoke the last name vehemently. "Either way, the chances of any of them being booted from the program are slim. The illegal Nip will be confiscated of course, but they'll be able to avoid most of the punishment."

Glacia puffed up in anger. "In all my - no, I won't stand for this. They'll be going down for this, mark my words." Even as Glacia said that I felt a seed of doubt enter my stomach. Somehow I felt like I was in a lot of trouble.

We went out of the library and back into the main room. Vinia pointed to the middle tunnel - we already knew that the second-to-left-most tunnel was to the medical bay (she did tell us that the other hallways had rooms full of non-sterile medical supplies in them, though). She explained that the middle tunnel led to the Amphitheater, where the Base-wide announcements were made.

After a short walk through the tunnel, we arrived at the Amphitheater. It was rather impressive - not in size, in which it was only slightly bigger than the library, but in aura. A platform stage and a ring of small fires added to a mystical quality, with large shining crystals acting as a light source for all those watching. It was one of the most beautiful sights I had witnessed so far.

Soon we left the Amphitheater and returned to the main room. Vinia then showed us the second-to-right-most tunnel, which purportedly led to an arena and training room, where Vinia and the rest of the class went to train and learn from a "Mr. Pix".

We went through the tunnel. In the tunnel, there was a series of interconnected hallways. Vinia was apparently familiar with these hallways, as she deftly led us out into a small arena. Vinia then proceeded to exhibit some of her abilities, such as psychic power (which was the glowing power she used earlier) and fairy power (which was a bright power that made me feel a little good inside).

Glacia scoffed. "Oh, please. I can do much, much better." She then began forming another Shadow Ball. However, this one looked a little different than the other ones she had been forming. While the other Shadow Balls had been a deep indigo, this Shadow Ball was nearly a complete black. Glaica charged the ball for a second, then fired it.

Once the Shadow Ball left her mouth, it began to split. One Ball turned into two, which turned into four, which turned into eight. Soon a multitude of balls was shooting in the air. After a second of air travel, they contacted the ground five or so meters away from where we were standing in the arena. Once they contacted the ground there was a series of loud booms and the room shook a little bit.

"Well…" Vinia said slowly, leaning away from Glacia. "That was… new…"

"I just pushed a little bit of some strange energy I was feeling into the Shadow Ball. I guess experimentation does have its benefits after all." We all stared at the small craters made by Glacia's Shadow Ball.

Then Glacia collapsed.

"Glacia?" I was instantly by her side - she seemed to be in a lot of pain and was gasping terribly. Vinia immediately came by our side and started running some glowing hands over Glacia's body.

"I can't really tell all that much from this scan since the energies she just released are interfering with my Psychic Powers, but from it looks like she's just exhausted."

Glacia shakily stood up and tried to brush me off. "D-don't worry Tom - I'm fine." She took a couple of steps forward. "Do you want to show off, Tom?" She walked to the door of the arena before plopping down, breathing heavily.

After seeing what had just happened to Glacia I wasn't willing to show off much. I shot off a couple more tongues of flame like I had two days ago, but for the most part, I stayed near Glacia as she tried to recover from the stunt she had just pulled. Ten minutes later Glacia was looking more or less like she always had, so we began the tour again.

After we left the arena we headed toward the training room. On the way, Vinia explained the difference between the two. One, the arena, was a place where two pokemon could spar or practice their moves without much fear of destroying anything important. Other than some moves like Earthquake and Magnitude,(which sounded _cool_ \- did you know that it shakes the ground?) you could use any move you wished.

The other, the training room, was where we were heading to. The training room was the place where you could meet with other pokemon for some one-on-one training. It wasn't really a room, per to say, but a collection of rooms connected by a single room. The training room was more of a web of rooms than an actual room.

Vinia showed us around the training rooms. The middle room was empty, except for the tunnels that led from it. There were at least ten tunnels that led from the room to other rooms. Vinia showed us the inside of a couple of the rooms that were connected to the main training room. They looked like miniature arenas in truth - they had the same platform for move-work on it, anyway.

Once we entered the main training room again, we spotted a familiar face. The Volcarona from yesterday was practicing his moves on the wall. The ferocity of the flames was intense, and we spent a minute just looking at his raw power. I shivered a little bit - it was amazing.

We left the training rooms afterward. Going through the tunnel again we arrived at the main room in the center of the base again.

"Well, guys, we're almost done with the tour. All we have left is the cafeteria, the room that's on the far right." Vinia pointed to the right-most tunnel. "It's approaching dinner time, so we're going to eat right now. Afterward, Glacia and I will head to our room to go to sleep. By then the Nip should have been at least confiscated, so you will have at least one good night's sleep." Not likely - I'm not sleeping in that room if you paid me a million bucks.

We walked through yet another set of tunnels. I was beginning to get rather tired of walking through all these tunnels. On our way to the cafeteria, Vinia explained that these tunnels lead to several storage rooms. Each of the rooms was under lock and key, so the only way a Pokemon could get into the storage rooms was through the permission of a Lock-Keeper, who was in the Administrative Section of the Base. You generally kept things in the storage that you didn't want to see stolen or gone but didn't have an immediate use for.

As for supplies for missions, we had to buy them from the vendors of the city. We had a discount from the city for buying things, but Captain Falcon didn't push very hard for a strong discount, so it wasn't very large.

Soon enough we made it to the cafeteria. There were three lines in the cafeteria, and after looking at what they were serving I knew why.

One line was serving a type of ground brown meat. It smelled somewhat nice, but it wasn't really all that appetizing. I did hear Glacia's stomach rumble a little bit, though, which made me wonder if she was a carnivore.

Another line served some green vegetables. Vinia was already making a beeline toward there, which made me think she was a herbivore or something (I really don't know, I don't even know what Vinia's species is yet).

One last line served something that made Glacia dry retch. One look at what she had retched at made me also feel somewhat queasy. Several live bugs were being at the line, and I wondered who could possibly eat that with a clear conscience. Then I noticed some of the pokemon in line and realized that if there were penguin pokemon there naturally would be other bird pokemon.

Going to avoid that line, anyway.

Vinia had already arrived at the line for the herbivores. A weird blue and green Pokemon that had orange leaves growing on its head as well as some orange balls was serving the Pokemon in line, giving them pre-made bowls of greenery with a bored and dopey look on its face. The line was moving very fast as a result, with each Pokemon being served in five seconds. Within a minute Vinia received her bowl and went to sit at some low-lying tables. There were no seats, so I assume you just put the bowl on the table and eat from there.

Glacia spent a minute talking to herself, then went over to the line for the carnivores. That line was being handled by a what looked like a strange pokemon. I really don't know how to describe the pokemon - it had tusks and a reptilian mouth and it had red claws and eyes and tail. It had a green top and a gray bottom. It looked like no animal I've ever seen before. They were being fed the ground brown meat and were heading to the same tables the herbivores were eating at. Soon enough she joined Vinia at a table.

… Where do _I_ go?

Well, I know for certain that I can eat meat - I ate it a couple of nights ago with Glacia and the rest of Team Link. Of course, I didn't like it all that much, but I didn't show it - instead, I smiled. Didn't want to be a burden, after all. The question is, should I eat it again?

I then realized I had been standing in the middle of the cafeteria like an idiot for about five minutes, and that other Pokemon were beginning to stare at me. I scurried over to the line for the carnivores, desperate to get away from the staring eyes. I'd eat meat again - I managed it last time, after all.

After a couple of minutes of waiting in the line, I had reached the front. The tusked Pokemon gave me an interested glance but handed me a bowl. I quickly grabbed it with my stubby Litwick arms and headed over to where Vinia and Glacia were sitting.

At the table, there were another bunch of new faces I had never seen before. I was slowly beginning to wonder just how many species of Pokemon there were, and if I would ever actually be able to see them all.

One was a tan pokemon that looked like it was made out of clay. It had squinting eyes and red lines covering all over. Interestingly, it reminded me of a top. It was tapping the ground in impatience as if they were bored. As I came near they looked at me in interest, boredom slowly disappearing

The other Pokemon looked like a dog. It had light brown skin and large blue eyes, dark brown dog ears and paws. It had a ring of rocks around its neck, which, looking at it, made me feel uncomfortable. A phantom pain occurred in my back and I remembered my weakness to rocks. I'm going to avoid angering them if I can help it.

As I sat down with my food, Vinia took it upon herself to introduce me. I think I've finally made myself appealable to her because her face no longer flushes when she sees me nor does she avoid my gaze or shudder at my touch. A victory, then.

"Oh, hi, Tom. Let me introduce you to some Pokemon I know." She pointed to the two pokemon that were sitting next to us. "First, meet Kaori the Baltoy." The top-like pokemon I first saw waved an arm at me. I was about to state a greeting similar to the one I gave Jenga but Kaori beat me to the introduction.

"Hi - quick question, do you like Catal, Merla, Ken or Jenga?" She asked in a flurry. Vinia looked a little annoyed at her but didn't say anything. Glacia was paying rapt attention to what was being said while wolfing down her food - with class, of course. Glacia would never settle for anything less. The dog Pokemon was doing the same with their food and attention although looking at me more distrustfully.

"Uh… no? I mean, I haven't met Ken or Catal." Then memories of the room I was _supposed_ to sleep in tonight hit men and I gagged. "But I don't really like Jenga at all. He made me… uncomfortable." How was one supposed to breach the topic of Nip? "Who's Merla?" The name sounded familiar, but I couldn't place it.

Kaori blinked, then nodded. "Good enough for me." She held out one of her top-hands. "Nice to meet you, Tom."

I smiled politely. "Nice to meet you too."

Vinia coughed. "On with the introductions. This," she presented, pointing toward the rock dog who was looking at me a _little_ less distrustfully, "is Ivan the Rockruff."

"Hello," Ivan barked out a gruff greeting. "Nice to meet you." She looked peeved for some reason.

Her name is Ivan? That's a boy's na- oh, right, what Vinia said earlier. Don't mention the name.

"Hi. I'm Tom." Sweet and simple.

Ivan grunted and began to stare at her bowl, which was now empty. It seems she finished it, then.

Speaking of meat bowls I looked at my own bowl. It still didn't seem very appetizing, but I didn't want to waste any of it, so I tipped the bowl and shoveled some of it in my mouth. It tasted bland and empty in my mouth. I chewed a little bit, which was a bad idea. It became even blander and emptier as I chewed it, to the point that I was eating what felt like plaster.

I forced it down my throat and had another couple of bites. But soon my mouth wouldn't open and I decided that it was physically impossible to have this food, at least of now.

"Are you going to eat that?"Ivan was staring at my food hungrily.

"Have it, I'm not interested." I pushed the bowl, which was three-quarters full toward Ivan. She took the bowl and greedily began gulping the food down. She paused for a second. "Thanks," she quickly said, with gratitude clearly in her voice, before continuing to eat her food.

I didn't pay much attention to the chatter around me as I tried to stomach the meat I had just eaten. Maybe meat wasn't as good for me as I thought it was.

After ten minutes or so the crowd in the cafeteria began to thin. Eventually, there were only a few groups of Pokemon left. The conversation at the table, meanwhile, turned from chatter to me and Glacia.

"So, you guys are going to be classmates with us? That sounds great!" Then talking specifically to me, she continued. "As long as you don't become friends with Ken, Jenga, Catal, or Merla, we can definitely get along."

While I didn't plan on making friends with at least one of those Pokemon - Jenga, of course - I wondered why she mentioned the other three. "Who are they? I mean, I know Jenga is - the Nip smoke was awful - but who are Ken and Catal?"

Kaori and Ivan looked at me, shell-shocked. "N-Nip?"

Vinia nodded. "Jenga was smoking Nip earlier in their room - Glacia and I smelled it from underneath the door. Tom got a full blast of some secondhand Nip, too."

A malicious gleam appeared in Ivan's eyes. I would be concerned, but Kaori's maniacal laughter was worrying me slightly more. "Yes! Now we can get them expelled!" My eyes widened - wow, they really must hate that group if that's the distance they're willing to go to make them suffer.

Vinia sighed. "No, we can't." She explained to them what Mrs. Kiss had told to us. "Other than a rebuke they'll probably get off scot-free."

Kaori groaned. "Well, a girl can dream right?" Even though her eyes were permanently shut closed I could almost imagine her looking beyond us into a universe where Jenga or Ken or Catal didn't exist.

Glacia wasn't talking much, as she was finishing off the rest of her food.

"Anyway, why do you hate them so much? Who are they?" The explanation reminded me that Ken was the son of Captain Falcon. Captain Falcon seemed like a pretty nice guy - he seemed fun to hang around, at least. The way the girls were talking he's nothing like his son.

"Oh, this will be a fun explanation. Let's go at each of them in turn. First of all, Ken. Ken is a Torchic, the pre-evolution of Blaziken. Ken is a guy who pushes his weight around too much - he expects us to give him special treatment that the Venturers give his father. He's not too smart but acts like he's a genius. He would rather goof off and annoy us than do anything meaningful with his life, and while he's strong he's not too brave, either. He only picks fights when he has at least two Pokemon behind him." Kaori began to rant. As she talked, Vinia and Ivan nodded at certain places, as if they'd heard this all before. Vinia looked especially bored, rolling her eyes at points.

"Of course, he always has at least one Pokemon behind him - Jenga. Jenga is, for lack of a better word, a creep. He makes weird bug sounds that make me shiver, He's also a total sycophant - if Ken asks him to jump he'll ask how high, never mind that Venipedes can't jump either way. He's also a terrible prankster - I don't know how he keeps leaving traps for us everywhere. He's a menace. And he never smiles - what a monster." Kaori finished with a shudder.

Honestly, while I did feel like Jenga was a bit of a creep I didn't think it was to this level. Then again…

"Catal is the biggest jerk you'll meet this side of Naixe. I'm not saying this because he's a Dark Type - even though that makes me hate him even more. No, even other pokemon will tell you how much he enjoys hurting other Pokemon. You should have seen him yesterday - he mocked some of our classmates for fearing to go into the Mystery Dungeon Field Trip yesterday. He pranks too, but he never gets caught for his pranks. He bullies a third of the class - oh, make sure he gets that you guys won't be victims. He can smell weakness. He has only two real friends, and that's Merla and Ken. The only reason he's still in the course is that he is the top student, right with Vinia here, as well as a friend of Ken." As Kaori talked Vinia's eyes darkened. She must have some sort of history with Catal or something.

Jeez, Catal sounded awful.

"Merla is the last Pokemon you should avoid. She's a girl like us, so you won't have to worry about her attacking you in your sleep." Suddenly the conversation got a lot darker. "She's an Inverted Larvesta, so she has next to no friends. She was completely alone until Catal came along and took her under his wings. She's the Jenga to his Ken, except she's even worse. She'll do anything he says - _anything_. The only reason she hasn't attacked a teacher yet is that Catal hasn't bothered giving her the order to. I'm still surprised that she didn't get into the fight yesterda- oh."

Kaori just got a look of realization on her face. "Catal wanted her to do nothing so that he could attempt to fool Mr. Pix - remember his 'goody-goody' act right before Mr. Pix took you into the Mystery Dungeon?" Vinia nodded, her eyes grim with dark memories.

"Inverted Larvesta? What do you mean, she's Inverted?" Surprisingly, Glacia asked this question. Up until now, she had been quietly observing the conversation, but now she interrupted.

Kaori looked at Glacia with a puzzled look on her face. "Didn't you ever hear about the Inversion Phenomenon?" Kaori asked, clearly confused.

Glacia shook her head. "No." Her face flushed - was she mad now?

Vinia decided to explain this, as Kaori had turned away to cough. "Inverted Pokemon are a special type of Pokemon. They aren't as rare as say, shinies, but they too have different skin colors. However, while shinies can be an assortment of colors, Inverted Pokemon always change their colors for their exact opposite. White always becomes black and black always becomes white, blue always becomes brown or orange and orange or brown always becomes blue, etc.

"The interesting thing is that their powers invert as well - not their types, their powers, as well as some characteristics. An Inverted Togekiss, for instance, wouldn't be kind and loving like a normal Togekiss would be, and they wouldn't be able to heal at all. Instead, they would be merciless, aggressive, and hateful, and they would curse anyone they cross with dark artifacts. They would be unable to do any good at all."

I couldn't imagine someone like Mrs. Kiss doing something as awful as that. "Are Inverted Pokemon evil?"

Vinia was silent, but Kaori scoffed. "Uh, yeah. All Inverted Pokemon become evil - even if they have bad powers that turn good they only use it on themselves. Inversions are a plague. I'm surprised why Captain Falcon let Merla into the base - she's clearly evil. Her freezing flames give me the chills, even though the types of her attacks are still Fire and Bug." Kaori stood up and stretched her top-body. "Let's go to sleep, then. I don't want to encounter Merla, and she goes to bed a little later than we do."

So we got up and walked out of the cafeteria. As Kaori and Ivan were talking, with Vinia politely listening, Glacia came up to me and quietly explained what Shiny Pokemon were. She was getting good at figuring out what I know and what I didn't know, thankfully.

Apparently, some Pokemon just have different colors than the others, Strawberry being an example. I finally figured out why Henka would want Strawberry specifically - while I had my rare wax and Glacia had her unique white iris, Strawberry was somewhat normal to me.

Well, seemed normal, that is.

We reached our residential area afterward. Glacia said goodbye to me for the night and followed Vinia, Kaori, and Ivan inside the girl's room. For a second I wished I could follow them - I didn't want to have to deal with that room, it's Nip smoke, and the inhabitants inside. It being a girl's room was a small price to pay.

Unfortunately, I didn't have much of a choice - nobody would give me a choice. I slowly stepped into the boy's room.

There were Pokemon inside. One was Jenga, who looked miserable. Once he spotted me he gave me the evilest glare I could ever imagine. Within a second I knew I had made an enemy within these walls. His feelers began to point straight up and he began hissing. Feeling slightly scared I face the other inhabitants.

One faintly reminded me of Captain Falcon. He had the same aura that the Captain did, except it was nowhere near as strong. He was orange instead of red, had a tuft of feathers on his head, and was much rounder in general, as well as magnitudes shorter - that must be the power of Evolution. He was lying on his side, looking bored. When I came into the room he gave me a death glare, his eyes betraying nothing but emptiness. This must be Ken - another enemy.

The final pokemon in the rooms sent shivers up my spine - if I had a spine, that is. This Pokemon was red and black. He was covered in blades, some on his hands while others coming out of his torso. On his head was a red helmet with a blade coming out of it. Somehow the blade coming out of his helmet reminded me faintly of Vinia's red horn. He regarded me with cold, dead eyes, and these eyes scared me far more than Jenga or Ken ever could - because these eyes weren't hostile. Their default was merciless - and I wondered if it getting warmer wasn't even possible.

That was Catal.

"Hello. My name is Catal." Catal held his bladed hand out, a grin forming on his face. "Nice to meet you."

I didn't shake it.

"Catal, what are you doing?" Ken asked, fixing his gaze on us. "This jerk ratted us out. Dad had to use his authority to make sure we stayed in the course - he was pissed at me afterward. Jenga is going to go through withdrawal now, and we're going to have to get a new stock of Nip. Now we're going to have to find some other place or way to have fun." Yet, even as he spoke this, he didn't seem all that problemed by it. He seemed to accept it - even relieved. The only time his tone matched his words was when he was talking about Jenga's 'withdrawal', whatever that was.

In contrast, Jenga, eyes bloodshot and definitely not as calm as he was earlier, shot toward me. I panicked and fell on my back as Jenga nearly collided with me.

Nearly, because I had an unexpected savior.

Catal held back Jenga, who was hissing madly at me. His voice was genial as he spoke. "No, No, Jenga don't do this." His face turned to me, and if I was able to pee, I would, because Catal nearly stopped my heart with a crazed smile. "That was my Nip - he's my responsibility."

Jenga seemed to accept this. With a breath of relief, he sighed. Then, eyes full of tears, hate, and misery, he looked at me.

"Make him cry."

I scrambled backward and tried open the door behind me - I'm never going to return to this room. However, I had only moved it a half a foot before Catal slammed it open himself. He pushed me into the hallway and silently closed the door behind him. Then, with both of us alone in the hallway, Catal pushed me up against a wall. At this point, I was crying, not from pain, but from pure fright.

"Look, kid - what was your name? Tom?" At my frantic nod, Catal continued. "Tom. That Nip was expensive. It took forever to get enough money to buy us a nice big stock and carrying it in here secretly was beyond difficult. I put a lot of work into that Nip - and in one night, you ruined all of it." He held up a blade that glowed black against my throat. "And you know what? People who cross me don't tend to be very happy shortly afterward. Those that scream feel even _worse_."

"To cap it all off, you're a Ghost - you're already dead, and you could pass on to the Ghost World _any day now_."

I got the subtext and quickly nodded. My lips were sealed.

"Now, for what you did to us, you're going to feel some punishment. For your punishment, we're going to play a little game. I'm going to say a sentence, and you will repeat it word for word. Every second you delay, I will slash you with dark energy. Got it?"

"G-got it." My voice came out in a squeak. Catal smiled.

"You will say this: "I will not tell anyone about what happened tonight, and I will not snitch on my roommates, because Pokemon that snitch on their roommates and ruin their fun are bad Pokemon." Ready?"

I didn't say anything.

"Go."

"I-I will not" *slash* "tell anyone" *slash* "about what" *slash* "happened tonight" *slash* "a-and I will" *slash* "not snitch" *slash* "on my roommates" *slash* "b-because Pokemon" *slash* "that snitch" *slash* "on their" *slash* "roommates" *slash* "and ruin" *slash* "their fun" *slash* "are bad Pokemon".

After thirteen slashes I finished what Catal ordered me to say. It wasn't as painful as I thought it would be, somehow. I didn't pause at all and stuttered only a little bit. My wax was everywhere, though, and a dull ache began setting into my body.

Catal sheathed his wax-covered blades. "Good. Never come back here again." He silently opened the door to the boy's room. Before he went inside, Catal said one last thing - "Run.". He then left me alone in the hallway.

I got up and ran. I ran like I had never run before.

I ran out of the system of tunnels like my life depended on it. I was _never_ going to return to that room. I'd lock myself in a bathroom each night than go in there one more time.

I reached the main room again. I didn't stop. Once I reached the main connecting room I fled downstairs so that I could leave the Base. I didn't know how far I was going to go.

Turns out it wasn't very far. The door was locked. I pounded at the door but it wouldn't budge. Guess I was trapped in here for the night.

I turned back to the Base. Where to go from here?

I'm not going back to the residential area - even though Glacia is there, the girls wouldn't let me in their room. Even if they did, Merla was in there. I wouldn't be able to say anything without Catal knowing. Going back to the boy's room is out of the question.

There's no point in going to the administrative area, either - nothing I can do there. The medical bay is out, too. Right now I'm injured - if Ms. Kiss sees me, dangerous questions will be asked.

 _I will not tell anyone about what happened tonight._

I shook my head, trying to get that out of my head. Somebody forcing you to say something under pain really gets it to stick in your head.

Yeah, I'm not going to listen to Catal. I'm going to the medical bay so I can get myself patched up. If I can take Catal down as well, all the better.

Of course, nothing can go right tonight. When I got to the medical bay, the door was locked. I knocked on the door, but nobody came. I continuously knocked on the door and continued to wait, but eventually, I realized that everyone was sleeping.

No medical bay or treatment for me, then. Well, at least until tomorrow.

So I left the tunnel and got back to the main room. Where else could I go or stay? The cafeteria was an option, but there was probably nobody there. I didn't want to remember the food either, so if there was a better option I would take it. The Amphitheater was another choice, but there was probably nothing there I could use or do.

All that was left was the training areas and the library. While I could work on my moves in the training area without any problems, I only really knew one move - that shoot-out-flames attack. How did one go about learning moves?

… Library it is. I'm supposed to learn, anyway - why not start now?

I headed to the library. If it wasn't open, then I don't know what I'd do.

It wasn't open, unfortunately. However, I saw a sight that made me gasp. There was a familiar-looking Pokemon leaving the library by PHASING THROUGH THE WALLS - and that's not the best part. You want to know the species of Pokemon that was doing this.

"Oh - hello?" Her eyes widened. "Hey, you're a Litwick! Nice to meet you - my name is Alice." The Lampent cheerily waved at me. "Nice to see another ghost at this base - did you just recently join?"

I mutely nodded.

"Wonderful!" Then, as if properly looking at me for the first time, she let out a small gasp. "Oh no! What happened to you?" She started circling me, pointing at my injuries. I let out a small wince. "These injuries are awful - if I had these kinds of injuries at your age I would be crying on the ground right now. You must incredibly strong if you're able to weather this." Extreme pain tolerance anyone?

"Well, Tom, we need to get you fixed up. I'll take some supplies from the medical bay - you rest in the main room for now." She then proceeded to carry me into the air and fly with me to the main room. Her metal was ice-cold on my wax and I suppressed a shiver.

When we got to the main room she let me go and flew off into the tunnel that led to the medical wing. She came back with a number of berries. She began to speak, looking embarrassed. "I don't really know first aid all that well. However, since we have similar physiologies there is something I can do for you to make it easier for you."

Alice put the berries on the ground. "Alright - get ready." Alice created an orange-yellow ball in the middle of the air, and I began to get a little curious about what she was about to do. "PAIN SPLIT!" She shouted, and the ball split in half and went into each of us. Then, miraculously, some of the pain I had been feeling started to erase itself. After a second or two of the Pain Split, I had felt much better.

Alice huffed a little bit. "Oh, dear… using it to heal someone else is more painful than I thought it would be." She took a couple of berries. "Did you eat any greenery earlier today?"

"Uh… no? What did you just do?" I asked, deeply curious.

Alice plopped the berries into her flame and started making chewing noises. "Oh, that's good." She then slid the berries over to me. "Have some - they'll help you heal even more." I gratefully took the berries and ate them myself. These were a much more welcome addition than the meat was.

After we had eaten our berries Alice took it upon herself to explain. "That was Pain Split - it's a move that averages out our overall health." My eyes widened - you could do that sort of thing. "Since you were much less healthy than I was, you gained some of my health."

"W-wow. That's amazing." Alice smiled, apparently pleased with the answer I had given. "Can I do that too?" I wondered aloud. She was a Litwick at one point as well - maybe I could learn how to use Pain Split.

Alice nodded. "Yeah. Although it's more of a battling move than a healing move - I tend to use it when I'm weaker than my enemy, so that the playing field manages to level itself."

The room was silent for a minute as I continued to chew on my berries. They were much better than the meat was - I would gladly eat them instead of the meat any day of the week.

"So, Tom, how did you get injured?" Alice sounded mildly curious. "You don't get that kind of injury all the time, after all."

My eyes clouded as I remembered what had happened earlier that night. Luckily the slight pain I had felt from Catal's continuous Dark slashes was easing slightly.

"I was… attacked. One of my classmates attacked me because I ratted him out on his Nip stash." I explained. "It was Catal."

Alice looked deep in thought for a moment. "I think I've seen him around - isn't he a Pawniard, helmet and all."

"Uh… yeah?" I honestly didn't know Catal's species.

"Then he's a Steel-type, right? Why didn't you fight back with your Flames?" Alice was puzzled. "Did you want him to hurt you this badly?"

"No! I just - I don't really know how to fight. I went through a Mystery Dungeon once and I fought its creations inside with some Fire, but I don't think I could actually fight another Pokemon." Fighting felt wrong to me - in the heat of the moment it seemed like the right thing to do, but what happened with Henka reminded me of the danger of fighting.

Alice tutted. "Tom, you're a Pokemon - you were born to fight. Catal is a Dark Type, he walks over everyone that doesn't immediately bow to him or fight him. You're a Ghost, so you're weak to his Dark Typing," my injuries twinged, "but his Steel Typing is weak to your Fire typing. Use your advantage effectively, Tom - protect yourself." Alice finished off, sounding disappointed.

Alice sighed. "Well, I know what I have to do." She took a good look at me. "Tom, we're going to have to work on your fighting abilities. I refuse to let a good Ghost like yourself get walked over like this by someone like Catal. Come one," Alice got up, "and let's go to training room - we have a lot to work on."

After a second's hesitation, I followed her. I may not hate Catal (I still can't tell why, I mean, I should hate him by all rights, but I don't want him hurt), but I needed to be able to protect myself.

Alice was the best way to do that, right?


	7. 7 - A Nightmarish Mind

(Glacia - Venture Base Residential District)

Coming from the main area, we began to walk through the tunnels that lead to the residential area. To the side of me, Tom was shifting his eyes wildly about, looking scared and jumpy. I can't blame him - if I had to sleep in the same room as Catal, I wouldn't feel very safe either. You can never trust a Dark Type like him; they're all a bad bunch.

Of course, I wouldn't have to deal with anything near that level of danger. I had three of my roommates with me right now - Vinia the Ralts, Kaori the Baltoy, and Ivan the Rockruff (her name was really, really weird). They seemed like a nice bunch.

Vinia is a bit rude, all things considered, but she seems dependable. Kaori is similar, although she is much louder. Ivan is intimidating - well, not really all that intimidating, she has nothing on Dad or Henka - yet silent, which means that I will be able to deal with her rather easily if it comes down to it.

No, I'm most worried about Merla the Inverted Larvesta. Larvesta and Volcarona are fairly rare - well they were rare over two-thousand years ago, at the very least. I don't know how rare they are nowadays if it's possible I can run into two distinct members of their line on two consecutive days. Either way, Kaori's description of the Inversion Phenomenon sent shivers up my spine. Back in my time we didn't have Inverted Pokemon…

...you know, now that I think about it, they're probably hazing me. Yeah - they're definitely hazing me. Inverted Pokemon don't exist, not like Mystery Dungeons. I know Mystery Dungeons exist, yet that is the line of my suspension of disbelief. Inverted Pokemon cross that line too much - they're simply not true.

As I was smiling to myself, reassuring myself of my intelligence at not being duped by such a pathetic lie, we reached the end of the tunnel, arriving at the doors to the boys' and girls' bedrooms. I bid goodbye to Tom, who had definitely grown in nervousness, and followed the rest of the girls into our room.

As we stepped into the room I immediately began to scout out the room for Merla. After a few seconds of looking, I managed to find her. A chill ran down my body as I looked at her - she definitely wasn't a pretty sight.

Blood red eyes adorned a pale white face, a night-dark mane enveloping her head and torso. A light blue abdomen was supported by pale white legs. Five curled blue horns were in Merla's mane, finishing off the garish sight.

Okay, so they weren't hazing me.

I had seen a picture of a Larvesta once before, in one of the reference books of the Castle. The picture was insanely different from Merla. The picture was of a dark face with light blue eyes, encapsulated in a white mane. Red horns came out of the mane, with a brown body supported by black legs. It was completely different from Merla in front of me.

The colors, however, weren't the things that made me fearful the most, however. Merla's aura set me on edge. A menace pervaded the air she was surrounded in. A feeling of foreboding set in - I had felt a similar sense of this foreboding before, with several Dark Types back home. A shadow, if you will. It was one of the reasons I despised them so much - they set me on edge.

However, Merla wasn't a Dark Type. I was going to treat her as such, however - she would gain no sympathy from me. Even though she hadn't said a word, simply staring blankly at us as we walked in, it was clear she held nothing but maliciousness for us. She was a Dark Type in everything that mattered. I could easily understand why Inverted Pokemon were hated so much - if the evil that permeated the air was Inverted in origin, then I would follow the crowd and show them no sympathy.

Yet it was too late to start a war tonight. Hoping that Merla would be relatively passive, I chose to look on the bright side and decided to ignore her for now.

"So, where do we brush our teeth?" I hadn't been able to find any facilities that had any toothbrushes or anything. The closest thing I found was the baths for visiting aquatic pokemon and for cleaning (I became slightly concerned that the same facilities were being used for both - the health risks must be awful). There was a small washroom, but I had checked it out and there were no toothbrushes there.

Kaori looked at me in confusion. "Brush our teeth? What do you mean?"

… Okay, I'll have to improvise, then. Tonight's getting late, so I'll have to find out how I'm going to brush my teeth later, though. I might as well go to sleep and figure out how to solve my problems in the morning.

Vinia showed me to my straw bed (they really had _no_ class, did they), which was sandwiched between hers and Merla's. Apparently, everyone took the beds as far away from Merla as possible already, so I was forced to sleep in the bed next to Merla's. Positively wonderful.

For an hour, I kept my eyes open as everyone but Merla fell asleep around me. Ivan was made of stronger stuff than I was, as she fell asleep in only a few minutes after lying down. Kaori followed suit ten minutes later, sleeping upright. Vinia stayed awake for a little bit, quietly keeping company with me, but she eventually nodded off.

Only Merla and I were left awake. The pure malice Merla was radiating simply left me unable to relax, and I shifted nervously about, trying to find a comfort zone. Then, for some reason, the malice diminished somewhat, and I turned around to see what had happened.

Merla had finally, it seemed, fell asleep. Her eyes were closed on her pale white face, moderate breaths coming out regularly. Her face looked eerily peaceful as if a tension that had been there decided to withdraw. I chose to take the opportunity to sleep and relaxed my body enough that I began to doze. Soon I was fast on my way to sleep, but not before a stray thought entered my mind.

'Merla… I wonder what she dreams about…'

* * *

(Glacia - ?)

I woke up to sharp rocks poking my delicate paws. I shifted around - my paw had probably fallen out of the straw bed and had hit a rough patch on the floor.

Of course, when I felt rocks under my belly as well, I decided to open my eyes and blearily make my way to the bed again.

Then, looking around me, my eyes widened of their own accord at what I was seeing. I was _not_ in the Venture Base anymore - that was clear enough.

I was no longer in the cave system - instead, I was in an open field of cold, jagged rocks. There were no landmarks or anything, except for something very faint off in the distance. The rocks were a dull periwinkle, which was something new - I had never seen a rock that wasn't a shade or tint of black, brown, or white (except for a rare red, orange, or yellow rock I found buried underneath the Castle's garden). All of the rocks were the _exact_ same shade of blue, too, which made for a weird effect.

What was more prevalent, however, was the sky. A chaotic mess of blue, black, and a variety of colors in between colored the sky. A turbulent wind rocked me as I stood, and thundering clouds blanketed the sky. It was nothing like I had ever seen, and I felt scared and anxious.

… Now that I think about it, this feels very familiar to me for some reason. The air was filled with a strange quality as if someone was continuously watching me and judging me to see what I did. I was constantly being tested and retested, with someone deciding what they wanted to do with me. I felt this feeling before with Dad when he was at his worst.

"Wh-who are you?" A timid girl's voice rang out behind me, with an age of seven or eight. "What are you doing here?" I turned around to look at who was talking to me, only to be shocked at who I saw.

An Inverted Larvesta looked back at me. The Inverted Larvesta was much smaller than Merla so it couldn't have been her, but it was clearly not a normal Larvesta either.

"My name is Glacia," I slowly spoke out, gauging her reaction. She had none. "I'm an Eevee. I don't know where I am right now - can you please tell me?" I wasn't holding out hopes for an actual answer - it didn't seem Inverted Pokemon were very cooperative, after all.

"Y-you're in my world. My name is Merla." Well, I wasn't expecting an answer, and certainly not _that_ answer. The Inverted Larvesta - who was apparently Merla, even though they were completely different sizes - was surprisingly cooperative.

Except for one thing, that is. "What do you mean, 'My World'?"

Merla shrugged. "I'm the only one that lives here - I think that means that this is my world, then." That was surprisingly rational. "How did you get here?"

"I don't know, Merla. I just fell asleep and found myself here."

Merla was quiet for a long time, and I just stood there, watching her. She was fidgeting a lot as if there was something she wanted to say but she couldn't. Eventually, after a minute or two, she spoke up. "Can I… show you around?"

"What is there to see? There seems to be nothing here but blue rocks and a dark blue sky."

Merla shook her head and something foreign entered her ruby eyes. "I must show you my savior. He is the one that brings light to this painful world and keeps everything together." Merla began moving to my right. "Follow me."

Ignoring the feeling of foreboding I was getting, I began to follow Merla across the rocky plain we were in. As we walked, I studied Merla. She seemed… younger, if anything, than the Merla I had seen before I went to sleep. She wasn't as creepy or unnerving, however - or at least, it didn't emanate from her like it did in the room. Rather, the unnerving feeling came from everywhere in this strange and perverse world.

Soon, we came to the edge of the plain. There was a large, or at the very least deep, chasm in the ground. It went on continuously, to the point where I couldn't see where the chasm ended. I looked on in apprehension.

Merla, however, looked like this was normal. She went backward for a minute, then, running at full speed with her small Larvesta legs, ran at the chasm at full speed. I shouted a warning to her because even if she was creepy she still shouldn't kill herself, but she jumped the width of the chasm and landed on a similar rocky plain on the other side.

"Come on, Glacia, hurry up," Merla remarked to me as I nervously looked at the gap. "You have to meet my savior - he'll help you with your problems."

Curiosity flaring up - her 'savior' could help me with my temporal crisis - I decide to follow Merla. I begin to run backward, then turn around and run full throttle toward the chasm. Boosting myself with Quick Attack, I leap across the chasm and make it to the other side.

"You made it!" Merla looked relieved that I managed to make it across. "Now I can show you to him!" I nodded and we made our way to Merla's 'savior'.

As we walked toward what looked like the center of the mass of plains, a fog began to set in. When the fog became thicker and thicker, Merla became antsier, something beginning to worry her.

Once Merla began to unconsciously bump into me, as if trying to both grab my attention and avoid it, I turned to her with annoyance flashing in my eyes. "Merla, stop it."

"I-I'm sorry…" Merla's voice grew quiet. Against my better judgment I began to feel pity for Merla - even though back at the Base she was evil incarnate (she didn't even have to say anything, I _knew_ she was bad news), she looked so _vulnerable_ right now.

I fixed a smile on my face and began to console Merla. "It's okay Merla, I'm not mad. I just feel kind of bad right now." That was actually kind of true - the unsettling feeling still hadn't left me, and I couldn't quite place where it was coming from. "I just feel kind of nervous right now - something has been bugging me ever since I woke up here. It makes me feel like I have to something… something bad."

That wasn't a lie either. I constantly felt the urge to lie to Merla and felt an even stronger urge to abandon her. These urges were weird in nature - Sharon made absolute sure that I wasn't a liar when I grew up, to the point where lies feel alien and unnatural in my mouth. I wasn't a Pokemon to abandon others, either. I placed Tom low on the priority scale a couple of times, true (which I'm a little guilty about) but for the most part, I stick to those I deem worthy.

"Oh… then y-you've been feeling the Miasma t-too, then." Wait, what?

"Miasma?"

Merla timidly nodded. "Did you… uh... notice the black stuff coming out of that big g-gap in the ground, Glacia."

I was about to shake my head, then stopped myself. I cast around in my head, thinking about the chasm. Its side was smoother than any cliff face I had seen before, and…

… yeah, there was some black mist escaping from the crevice.

How did I _ignore_ it? It passed by my attention completely, as if I was used to it. But I had never encountered that Miasma before - it was completely new to me.

I nodded to Merla. "Yeah, I noticed that black stuff come out of the cracks."

"T-That's what's making you feel so awful, Glacia. The M-Miasma causes nightmares - it speaks evil into your heart and makes you want to do awful things. It bottles up underground and makes those cracks, and widens them too."

That explained why I had the urge to lie and abandon Merla - the Miasma was making me feel antagonistic toward her and was causing me stress and anxiety.

"The s-savior stops the Miasma, though. He can make the c-cracks smaller, which lets me t-think. He saves me from d-destruction." Her eyes shone with pure adoration, an obsession trickling into her voice. "Please, let me show him to you. If we pray to him he can do _anything_."

I was starting to feel nervous now, more nervous than what the Miasma was making me feel. Merla was beginning to sound… _unhinged_. She dragged me with surprising strength for someone as young as she looked, fanaticism driving her every step.

This 'savior'... he managed to repair the cracks that the Miasma flowed through… would he be able to help me with my problems?

Unfortunately, the fog began to thicken as Merla began to slow down. I sensed that we were getting close to Merla's 'savior' as I felt a powerful presence appear at the center of the rocky plain.

"My lord…" Merla reverently murmured bowing to the lowest possible point it could go. As she did so she dragged me down as well - she must have thought that I was being irreverent by not bowing.

"Merla…" A deep, dark, and intimidating voice rang out from deep in the fog. "Who is this person you have brought with you today? You have never done this before - explain." I shivered at the power in his voice.

"M-my lord, this is Glacia the Eevee." I almost snapped at her because I am _not_ a mere Eevee but held my tongue. "She d-doesn't know why she is here and she has come here l-looking for answers. C-can you please help her?"

"No." The answer was quick, short, simple, and biting. "Unless you wish for me to forgo healing the land, she may not get my assistance with her endeavors."

"N-NO" Merla was quick with her denial, which ticked me off greatly. "F-Forgive me, my lord. I have transgressed."

Her savior scoffed. "If you wish to pay penance both of you must earnestly pray for forgiveness - that is the price you must pay for me fixing your mind today."

"G-Glacia, we're going to pray now." Merla quickly ordered me. I was about to refuse because no member of my line would ever bow to anyone else - we were above all, even the heroes. Yet, Merla's plea brought my words down short. 'Praying' to the savior would help this land and help Merla. Merla went through some trouble because of me - I'd be remiss not to return the favor.

Grudgingly I sank into a bow with Merla as the 'savior' laughed in front of us. I began to hold a hate for the 'savior' - even though he is saving this land, he clearly only does it to feed a god complex. If Merla doesn't pray to him he refuses to save her and this land - that was despicable, even by my lax standards.

As the 'savior' laughed the fog began to disperse itself, revealing their face. I chanced a look at this savior.

A Pawniard stared back at me, on top of a metallic disk of light, which radiated darkness (somehow). A strange white light clashed with the black Miasma spewing everywhere. White chains of that light erupted from the Pawniard's bladed hands.

"Lord Catal… thank you…" Merla said reverently. I started - Catal? That Pawniard Kaori and Vinia warned me about? _He's_ Merla's 'savior'?

Catal nodded. "Leave - I must do my duty." He disappeared.

Merla sighed in relief. "Oh, thank you, Lord Catal, thank you…" As Merla continued her prayers I began to feel like I was missing something. Merla is here, yet no one else is, there's Miasma flowing in from underground that's breaking the land, and _Catal_ of all Pokemon is saving this place. What's going on…?

… wait a second. The last thing I remembered before waking up in this strange world is sleeping in the straw bed at the Venture Base. My last thoughts were…

' _Merla… I wonder what she dreams about…'_

' _Dreams about…'_

' _Dreams…'_

I'm in Merla's dream, aren't I. I don't know how or why, but somehow my wish managed to allow me into Merla's dream, and I'm in her mind right now. That might be why Merla is so much younger than she was in the Base - she was probably dreaming of herself as when she was younger.

But then what was up with Catal and the Miasma? The Miasma breaks this dream world, and Catal is the one that keeps it together… what does this all mean?

"Say, Merla, how long has the Miasma been here?" Best to start asking questions, then. I've mostly gotten over my fear of asking questions and making myself look bad as a result. "What causes the Miasma?"

Merla slowly lowered her praying voice, and then began to think for a little bit. "The M-Miasma? It's been around for as long as I can remember. I know that t-the Miasma comes from underground, out of sight, but I don't know exactly what c-causes it."

"Well, how does Catal heal the cracks in here?"

"L-lord Catal, Glacia. Address him p-properly." I waved Merla off - I'm not going to show that braggart any more respect than he deserves. "I can show you h-how he heals the world, Glacia. C-come on." She shakily got to her feet and started walking out of the fog. I followed her, a little curious as to where this dream would go.

We slowly and silently walked out of the foggy plain. The fog began to dissipate as Merla led me back to the crack we had jumped over.

Soon we had made it back to the crack. However, in addition to the abyss with Miasma flowing out of it, there were the chains of light that we had seen coming out of Catal's bladed hands before. They were weaved in-between the two cliff faces as though it was sewing the crack together. Less Miasma was flowing out of the narrower crack, but the crack was still there, and Miasma was still flowing out of it.

Merla waited there so I could see what I had wanted to see. I looked around at the crack, contemplating what was being done.

To tell you the truth, this seemed nothing more than a temporary treatment to the issue. True, this was probably preventing the Miasma from getting worse - but it was coming nowhere close to actually fixing the problem. And if Mind-Catal kept using his narrowing of the Miasma as blackmail, then he could make Merla do… whatever he wanted…

Okay, I'm going to fix this problem, once and for all. I don't care that this is all a dream, but Mind-Merla is surprisingly nice and I'd like to wipe the smug smirk off of Mind-Catal's face.

"Merla, the Miasma comes from underground, right?" A plan began forming in my mind - it was an incredibly stupid and dangerous plan, but it seemed like my best choice right now.

Merla nodded, confused. "Y-yeah, the Miasma comes from underground. I've never been down there before, but I know it's a l-long drop to the bottom - I threw a r-rock down there once."

Remembering a few rare facts about Larvestas, I nodded. "Great - the plan is set."

"W-what plaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-" I grabbed Merla by her obsidian mane and jumped into the chasm.

"WE ARE GOING TO DIE!" Merla screamed into my ear once I had let go of her, holding on to me tight.

"NO WE WON'T - LARVESTAS CAN FLY BY USING THEIR FIRES. YOU HAVE TO SAVE US, MERLA!" Larvestas could use the flames emitted from their horns for propulsion. It allows them a lot of mobility in battle and allows them to avoid a majority of Ground Type Moves if they know how to do them.

Merla took faith in what I said and began to use her flame propulsion. Freezing flames began to flow out of them, but not at a very strong rate. We had marginally slowed down, but not enough to avoid serious injury.

"MORE, MERLA, WE NEED MORE!" I shouted at her. The flames sputtered for a second, and I worried that she was going to give up. But then the flames came out at a much greater size and rate and we drastically slowed down, enough so that we managed to come to a stop at the bottom of the cave.

Merla shakily let go of me. "I-I didn't know I could do that…"

"Well, now you know. Let's find what's causing all of this Miasma." The Miasma was magnitudes greater inside the crack then it was on the surface of the dream world. I almost choked on it, negativity and evil running through my veins. I did my best to suppress it. Merla was doing it rather well as well, although I imagine she must have had a lot more practice at repelling the Miasma.

"I-I don't want to." I stopped short.

"What do you mean, 'you don't want to'?" Why on Naixe would she want to not destroy the Miasma? It was destroying the land and it was making her reliant on Catal.

"I'm worried C-catal will leave if there's nothing for him to save me from - he won't have to save me anymore, and I'm s-scared he'll leave me to go and scare someone else." I bit my tongue, knowing that Catal was only here because he craved Merla's worship.

"If Catal really cares about you he won't leave you, Merla. Don't worry." I don't lie, but half-truths are practically a necessity. Even Sharon had to admit that.

Merla turned away from, firing up her freezing rockets. "He… doesn't, Glacia. I'm not s-stupid. Still, he's the one who keeps me sane. I will do _anything_ for him, and that includes leaving you." She flew away. "Bye, Glacia."

I just stood there for a little while, trying to process what Merla had just done. By the time I had enough sense to call her back, it was already too late and I couldn't hear her anymore - she was out of earshot.

 _(You can't escape from your flaws - they haunt you night and day, and you put up a facade of bravado to ignore them)_

Damn her! She was the way I was going to get out of here. I thought she wanted to get rid of the Miasma. Apparently, she wants to keep Catal around and is willing to have the Miasma around simply so that he will have something to fix. Now I have to go and get rid of the Miasma, for someone who is unwilling.

 _(Nothing goes right for you. Everything you try falls to pieces, and you are a failure at all of your endeavors)_

I let out an angry roar and start blasting the walls of the chasm. Rocks fall out of the wall as I unleash my rage. Will _nothing_ ever go right for me? Ever since I was thrown to the future - no, before that, with the revolution - everything spiraled out of my control. I have had to endure attacks from magical light balls that like personality tests, evil hypnotizing traitors, a legendary Pokemon that wants me to suffer in the past while my family's home is torn to pieces, a pokemon trafficker, a Mystery Dungeon, poisoning, and now this!

 _(You don't mind the Miasma - it doesn't matter what happens to you if it's here or not. It only matters to Merla, the wretch)_

I continue to blast the walls, unleashing my eternal rage. I start shooting out Shadow Balls and like yesterday they fill themselves with a dark energy that causes them to multiply. Now I have to defeat the damn Miasma, which I don't particularly care about either way.

 _(You must leave - that is the only way you can function. You must leave all of your problems on the shoulders of everyone else so you may escape unscathed)_

Maybe I'll just escape - that's the only real thing I should do. Merla should deal with this Miasma all by herself, if she can in the first place. Hah - I should have known me helping her all this time was a joke.

The Miasma wasn't going to be my problem. That nervous, antagonizing, hate-inducing mist can…

… wait.

That's why I'm so angry right now! The Miasma is defending itself.

 _(You can't see what's in front of you. You miss everything that is under your nose, with your vision only perfect in hindsight.)_

Ah, who am I kidding? I was wrong about…

… nice try, Miasma.

Pushing against the Miasma and its insidious voice within my head, I head inwards. I somehow know where the Miasma is originating from - and judging by the location my senses are telling me where it is, Catal's location isn't random.

Several hundred meters under the geyser where Catal had stood, I entered a large chamber. Miasma blocks my sight, making me unable to see. Yet I press on, honing my Miasma-sense for the large concentration.

Suddenly my hair rises and I get a flash of intuition. I dodge to the right, and a spike of Miasma impales the ground where I had previously stood. The Miasma is finally physically fighting back against me - that means it's feeling threatened by my presence. This Miasma is sentient, so it's an actual enemy to fight, rather than a phenomenon. I can actually win!

Then I get hit by a blast of the Miasma, and I'm reminded of why this wasn't going to be easy. The Miasma can fight back - this makes things infinitely more difficult.

I decided to start with a dodging maneuver, to try and confuse the Miasma as to where my presence is. That fails miserably, however, and the Miasma knocks me on to my side. I get up, even with the Miasma pressing me down, and jump to the side to avoid a spike of Miasma impaling me where I stand.

I begin to charge my Shadow Balls while running in an effort to attack the core of the Miasma, whose presence I had finally pinpointed. I launch the Shadow Ball, in hope that it could damage the core and make this battle slightly easier. However, tendrils of the Miasma came in and interwove into each other, acting as a shield that protected the core of the Miasma from my shadowy blows.

The Miasma begins to push back against my movement, stopping me from moving fast at all. I push through it with a Quick Attack, forcing my way through the Miasma. Unfortunately, with most of my concentration focused on running the Quick Attack and dodging the impaling spears of the Miasma, I wasn't able to actually attack the Miasma. I was forced into a sort of stalemate with the Miasma. Even when I put the running of the Quick Attack on the backburner to think of a strategy to beat the Miasma, I couldn't gain any ground.

Then I noticed that the speed of my Quick Attack was faltering, outside of my control, and I cursed. I hadn't been practicing my moves as much as dad had liked, and now my moves were failing me. I would have to train once I woke up…

… if I woke up, that is. I don't know what would happen if you died in someone's dream - fiction books aren't exactly unanimous about that.

Well, there is one last thing I can try - but it will probably tire me out completely. I use the rest of my Quick Attack energy and run as fast as possible into the core of the Miasma. On the way, I begin to charge up a Shadow Ball. The effort slows down my Quick Attack and is beyond painful, but I manage to do it. Dodging tendrils of the Miasma as they tried to slow me down I finish charging up the Shadow Ball and fire it point blank into the core of the Miasma.

Another wall of Miasma shows up and blocks my attack. I then am thrown into the wall of the chamber. I can't find the energy to stand anymore - I used all of my energy up in that final futile attack. More tendrils of Miasma show up and begin to stab me. I writhe in pain, knowing that I'm finished.

"G-GET AWAY FROM HER!" A chill spreads over the room, and I open my eyes a fraction of an inch. What I see shocks me. Merla, cloaked a flaming blue aura, charges into the Miasma. The Miasma starts to swipe at her, but all of its attacks bounce off of Merla's aural shield. Even when the Miasma attempts to slow her down she keeps on charging, to the point where all of the Miasma is gathered into a single point and slammed into Merla. This slows her down to a stop.

"A-ATTACK, GLACIA." I then realize Merla's plan. With all of the Miasma focused on stopping Merla's attack, there's none of the Miasma left to defend the core. I struggle to my feet and get a good look at the core of the Miasma. The core of the Miasma is a dark orb of energy that surrounds a white piece of fabric. I disregard my questions (for once) and focus on taking it down. Unfortunately, I ran out of stamina and have no more energy for a Shadow Ball of a Quick Attack.

Yet there is one more move I can use in a situation like this. I never thought I would have to use this after I had learned Quick Attack, but now is as good a time as ever to use it.

I begin to run with an energy I didn't know I had toward the core. Once I get close the core finally notices me and tries to run away, dissipating the Miasma that was stopping Merla in the process. Yet it escapes too late. With a smash, I run, jump, and Tackle the core with all of my remaining might.

The core begins to writhe in agony as I collapse onto the ground, defeated. Then Merla, cloaked in a blue halo of light, attacks the core with a blast of fire. The core then catches on freezing fire, and instead of freezing into a block of ice like Henka the core begins to burn. This had to be the effect of Merla's Inverted Flames.

The Flames begin to grow in size and the black core begins to glow white. With a final flash of light, the core explodes, with the freezing flames being cast outward. The rest of the Miasma shortly catches on fire, and the air chills as a result. I shakily get to my feet again, pain wracking my body. Soon the fires burn out, with the rest of the Miasma disappearing as a result and a strange weight lifted itself off of my chest.

Merla and I were alone in the chamber, which was silent and dark, with only a faint light seen. Then Merla's halo goes out and she collapses, crying.

I slowly walk over to her, and she leans on me. I let her lean - she deserved it, after what she had just done.

I don't know for how long Merla cried - I lost track after three minutes. However, she eventually collected her voice and began to talk.

"I'm sorry… after a couple of minutes… I figured out that the Miasma was making me feel awful… I'm sorry…" She said this, looping over to the beginning after she had said it. This continued on for a couple of minutes more.

"I… know that Catal doesn't care for me. At first, he cared for me. He healed me for free and took his time to be n-nice and stuff to me." Merla sniffled. "But then… I don't know what happened. He stopped caring for me. Still, he was my Lord, and I wouldn't do anything against him, _ever_."

Merla wiped her eyes with one of her legs. "When you tried your hardest to save me… I realized that even though Catal was the only one keeping me sane with his chains of light, he didn't do it out of any kindness. The Miasma that I felt down there… I felt it with Catal as well. He's _part_ of the Miasma. He never showed me any kindness at all - all he did was extend my suffering. Now the Land of my Mind will break, and I'll go insane."

"No, you won't." The words flew into my mouth. "I'll keep your mind together. Let's go to the surface, and I'll figure out a way, I promise."

Merla flew into my ruff and sobbed, yet these sobs weren't out of pain. I let her finish her crying.

"Can you bring us out, Merla?" I asked casually.

Merla shakily nodded, then fired up her horns, and then we ran into a problem. By herself, Merla was able to fly vertically, as shown by her previous escape. With my weight, however, she was too heavy, and couldn't fly anymore.

Then there was an earthquake, and I began to fear the worst. I grabbed her mane in my mouth and I ran as fast as possible back the way we came.

We came back to the entrance from the crack and saw something awful. The chains of light Catal had created were disappearing one by one, and the cliff faces began to fall apart.

Merla's mind was breaking in front of us as we stood.

Merla began screaming as the each of the chains of light disappeared. I dropped her to the ground and looked her right in her eyes.

"Fly, Merla. Fly." I pointed upward. She stared at my paws, then comprehension dawned on her face. She nodded and began to propel herself upward.

Now, what was I going to do? Merla was going insane and I was powerless - there's _nothing_ I can do right now.

Think… think…

Then one of the chains of light disappear, and I get an idea. Those chains could still be useful.

I fire a Shadow Ball at one of the chains. It breaks and splits in half. One end of the chain ends up dangling uselessly on the edge of the cliff next to the one I was on. The other end of the chain falls next to me, and I grab it with my teeth.

Well, here goes nothing.

The chain of light firmly in my teeth, I begin to run. Building up momentum, I use Quick Attack and jump.

Hanging by the chain I go to the cliffside adjacent to one I leaped off of and begin to use Quick Attack to run up the wall. Gravity does all it can to pull me down, but I gather height.

Then, the cliff face moving backward by the cracking under my feet, I jump off of the cliff face and swing to the cliff I had previously jumped off of. I scrabble onto the cliff face and begin to use the inertia from my swing to charge up a Quick Attack and vertically make it all the way up the cliff.

I fall onto my face, the chain of light I was hanging off of disappearing in my mouth. I quickly get up and find Merla still screaming, tears falling down her face. I grab her and run - the chains originated from one place and that's the only place I can possibly fix this.

As I run to the place where we had seen Mind-Catal, cracks begin to form in the ground beneath us. Merla's screams increase in volume, to the point where it becomes hard to think. Every tremor I feel breaks the ground even more, which incenses me to move faster. I'm going to save Merla - and I will not go back on my word.

We reach the area where we had met Mind-Catal before. Mind-Catal was gone, and if what Merla had said about him being a part of the Miasma was true, he was gone permanently. However, he wasn't what I was looking for. Mind-Catal was sitting on a metallic disk when I first saw him. If my intuition was correct…

"Merla…" Merla continued to scream as her mind fractured around her. "MERLA!" Some clarity entered her eyes, and her voice quieted. "Do you trust me?"

She stared at me uncomprehendingly.

"Do you trust me, Merla?"

Slowly, she nodded.

"Then believe in me - that's the only way I can save you now."

With that, I step onto the metallic disk. Merla stares at me uncomprehendingly.

As I step onto the disk I feel the presence of the chains of light that Mind-Catal wielded. With a mental tug, I commanded them to stop disappearing. As I did so the tremors began to slow. More clarity began to enter Merla's eyes as she realized what I was doing to save her.

Then Merla kneeled and began to pray. I was confused - I wasn't Catal, and I didn't need her to worship me and fill my ego. Then my powers began to grow, and I understood what she was doing. The prayers she sent me somehow managed to fill me with power. I began to create more and more mental chains and sent them to fill the cracks that her mind breaking had made. Soon enough I felt the smaller cracks that were recently made close up.

The bigger cracks, however, were still there. No matter how hard I tried the chains of light couldn't close them. Something told me that the Miasma wasn't the cause of those cracks, rather it had taken advantage of them. They would have to be fixed in a different manner.

I had done all I could. I gingerly stepped off of the metallic disk, in case the tremors started up again. Luckily they hadn't, and I breathed a sigh of relief. The danger was over - Merla and I were now safe.

Merla looked up, pure adoration shining in her eyes. "Lady Glacia…" she muttered as reverently as she did when praying to Mind-Catal - perhaps even more so. I felt a little awkward - I was used to being called a Princess, and while I was also used to being called Lady (by my servants back in the Castle), it was never laced with _worship_.

"You're safe now, Merla - I'm going to be here for you." Merla eagerly nodded. I looked back at the chain-making disk, the one that kept her sanity, and was surprised at what I saw. A pale version of me was holding chains of light in her maw It looked at me with pride and knowledge and winked.

All of a sudden, I understood. Mind-Catal was how Merla had perceived Real-Catal, except it was powered by Miasma instead of Mind-Merla's faith once she had diminished her aforementioned her mental faith in him. Real-Catal must have wormed his way into Real-Merla's good graces, and she became so loyal to him that her dream self, apart from her real self, became his worshipper.

Once Real-Merla had disillusioned herself with Real-Catal (still loyal to him, mind you), Mind-Catal fueled himself on Miasma as well as Mind-Merla's meager remaining faith. Once she lost the remainder of her faith in Catal, he existed and kept her sane only by the power of the Miasma. Hence what just happened.

Once I took charge of the disk and Merla gained faith in me, I was able to reverse the damage done to her mind, keeping it together. Leaving the disk Merla had created a Mind-Me, which would probably continue to keep her mentally stable. Mind-Me was powered purely by Merla's faith in me so she would continue to be sane as long as she held faith in me, both in real-life and in here.

Talk about responsibility.

Then, motes of light appearing around me, I exited the dream world, confident in Merla's mental safety.

* * *

(Vinia- Venture Base Residential District)

*Yawwwwnnnnn*

Oh, dear Arceus, that was a good night's sleep. I haven't slept that well in ages - if ever. A strange weight has lifted off of my shoulders, one I didn't know I actually had. With a smile, I get up and stretch my body. Oh yeah…

I can't believe I feel this incredible. Almost unbidden I call my powers to the forefront. They pop into existence with a snap, and I revel in how easily I can manipulate the straws of my bed. What _happened_ last night to strengthen me so much? The air is _insanely_ different - it's near indescribable how much I feel relieved.

You know, I wonder how everyone else slept. After all, the atmosphere of the room must be much more comfortable for everyone else as well - or is it this comfortable just for me?

"... wow. Wow!" That's Kaori for you, always starting off every morning with a bang. Sometimes I think Arceus mistook Kaori's species when creating her, because most Baltoys are calm and stoic, while Kaori is anything but.

Kaori hops out of bed and immediately checks herself out. "Hey, Vinia, what happened? I think my powers have improved - my Levitation is insanely strong now. See!" She proceeded to Levitate herself a foot into the air just to prove it. She smiled at me, her head way above mine.

Ivan blearily got up. "What…" Ivan yawned. "What is happening, Kaori." She shook herself awake. "Why… are you in the air?"

"I'm in the air because I feel great, Ivan - I feel on top of the world. Get it?"

Ivan cracked a smile. "Yeah, Kaori, I get it. You're Levitating."

I turned (with Psychic power, of course - who knows how long this strange power surge is going to last) to look at Glacia, to see if she also felt the strange power boost. What I found, however, shocked me.

Glacia was shaking in her straw bed, convulsing at odd intervals, constantly kicking at the air. I felt entranced as Kaori and Ivan began their morning routines, oblivious to Glacia's sleeping seizures. I made no motion to get ready for the day like I usually would.

Then Glacia began to, of all things, smile, and began to whisper in her sleep. I felt the need to read Glacia's emotions using my heart but stopped myself. One of the unofficial rules of sensing other Pokemon's emotions is to not do it when they sleep - it's considered an absolute disgrace to do so.

Slowly, though, Glacia woke up. I sensed the change in her consciousness with my horn. She slowly got up and shook herself. I wondered whether Glacia can sense the shift in the air too.

Then I heard rustling off to my right and cursed. Merla - I somehow forgot that she existed. It was nice too - now, though, I'll have to deal with her blank stares and evil aura.

Glacia, however, began to act strangely. Once she had gotten up, she took a look at Merla and grew pensive. The urge to use my horn in a more invasive purpose entered my mind, but I stopped myself - I was _not_ going to be my mother, in any capacity. I would find out the way everyone else would - by asking questions and hopefully receiving true answers.

Glacia slowly tip-toed over to Merla, who was waking herself up slowly.

"Glacia?" The words escaped my lips spontaneously, and I cursed. So much for being only an observer. I was involved now, in whatever mess Glacia had gotten into with Merla.

Upon my words Merla's eyes snapped wide open, red eyes fixating themselves on Glacia. Almost unconsciously I used my horn's empathic abilities on Merla. There was confusion, wonder, then… _love?_

Was Merla _loving_ one of us? That… had to be impossible. Was my horn malfunctioning or something? The chances of Merla going from despising our existence to _loving_ us, in a matter of _hours_ , was astronomical - and factoring in that literally _nothing_ happened between the two last night (as far as I knew), those chances get exponentially rarer.

Glacia began to whisper to Merla, and I strained my ears to catch what was being said. "Merla… do you remember?"

Merla continued staring, then, as slow as a Magcargo, nodded. Meanwhile, I began to wonder if I was still dreaming - that had to be the _only_ explanation for what was happening here.

Glacia smiled, and I began to wonder what on Naixe went on between the two. Clearly, something must have occurred last night between the two without my knowledge - something _major_.

"Hey Vinia, are you coming to ge…" Kaori had gotten out from the small washroom. She stopped dead in her tracks, though, when she saw what was going on. " _Glacia_? What are you _doing_?"

Glacia started and twisted around incredibly fast to look at Kaori. Fear lanced up her eyes as she recoiled from Kaori's harsh gaze.

Of course, Glacia quickly recovered, and soon began to speak patronizingly. "I am getting up, Kaori. I would _sincerely_ appreciate it if you didn't meddle in my business."

Kaori's glare grew in size, and I mentally cursed - Kaori was more obstinate than any other person I've seen - if someone challenged her they _weren't_ going to win easily, if at all. Glacia didn't know what she was getting into if she was trying to start a feud with Kaori.

I needed to start damage control between the two _yesterday_ , and that wasn't a figure of speech.

"Kaori, Glacia, let's calm down. Glacia, I'm sure Kaori didn't mean to intrude upon what you were doing - she was just worried about you." I banked on Glacia's common sense to help her get past her emotions.

Then Glacia's eyes went glacial, and I cursed. She wasn't the type to back down. At this point, I realized that I might as well let the storm blow over by itself and promptly decided to get ready for the day. I also realized that Kaori and Glacia, who were cordial enough yesterday, were going to be enemies. I'll stay out of that for now.

So I get into the bathroom and ignore the rising voices of Glacia and Kaori in the main bedroom. If they begin drafting for the little war they're creating, I won't be a part of it. I use a little of psychic power to groom myself a little bit - I don't have any tools I can implement to make it easier so this will have to do.

I Teleport to the outside of our bedroom. Teleport was a move I had only recently learned - I've been only able to use it for a week or so successfully. I'm still trying to figure out its applications, but this seemed to be a good use for it.

I walk out of the residential district at a fast pace and head up a floor to get to the classroom area. Thankfully, I'm not running low on time, or else I would have to Teleport again. Teleporting is a lot more painful than you think, after all.

I get into the classroom/lecture hall and look at everyone else as usual as I wait for class to start. Rai, Stop, and Lyli were chatting like usual in their corner, while Shift was talking animatedly to Naetle. Ken was brooding for some reason in a corner, while Jenga was thanking Catal endlessly over and over again.

At that sight, I felt my disgust of Catal deepen. I have no idea what happened between Glacia and Merla last night, but the warnings we gave her didn't seem to stick in. Catal was _bad_ news - he was the biggest bully around, and was only protected by his friendship with Ken.

Ivan was sitting by herself - she was also probably waiting for Kaori to come so that they could sit together. Sometimes I sat near them as well and caught snippets of their conversations.

The door slammed open, and conversation around the room slowed down as everyone saw a fuming Kaori enter the room. I thought I could see steam coming out of her ears, but that made no sense - Kaori wasn't a Water Type, after all.

Kaori stormed over to where Ivan was sitting and sat down next to her. Ivan seemed almost afraid to breach the topic of conversation - she likely didn't know what had happened, given that I faintly remember her leaving while I was staring at Glacia in her sleep.

That… came out wrong.

Conversation resumed around the room, except for Shift and Naetle, who just looked over at Kaori, concerned. I think Shift was with me and Catal when we were exploring the Floral Fields Mystery Dungeon. Shift doesn't have much of a presence to him - the Klink generally stays out of the way of strong personalities.

Generally, because Naetle isn't someone you want to mess around with. The Turtwig is one of the strongest battlers in our class, right behind Catal. Of course, he's infinitely nicer than Catal is, although he seems to be a little stupid at times. Can you believe he actually tried to defend _Merla_ once?

I don't know how Shift and Naetle know each other - Naetle is like me, Tom, and Glacia. One day last month he joined the Venturing Course. I have _no idea_ how he got himself in that late, because you either sign up at the beginning of the year every couple of years like everyone else, or you get conscripted because of a debt, like I was forced to (probably Tom and Glacia too, now that I think about the mission Ms. Kiss told me about).

The door then opened again, and Glacia came walking in. She came in cautiously, checking the area, before coming inside. Then, past her, came Merla. Merla seemed strangely… content, as if she was _happy_ for a change. Whatever had happened to our room before must have affected Merla as well.

Before long Kaori had gotten up and had started shouting at Glacia, with Glacia shouting back. Personally, I agreed with what Kaori said, because Inverted Pokemon like Merla are bad news. I wonder why Merla was even let inside the building, let alone become a Venturer. Captain Falcon's influence must be at work again - his love and trust for Fire Types were through the roof.

The conflict, though, was too much for my emotion-sensing horns, and I decided to leave it alone. I wasn't going to subject myself to the hate that was being emitted by each party. Call me a coward, I don't care.

"Merla, I say we should end this little spat these two fine Pokemon are having." You know, I never thought that I would appreciate Catal ever interrupting, but this was actually a good time for an interruption. "End this ridiculous charade you've got going, Merla, and come over here. I want someone to vent on and you always listen." Glacia glared at Catal as if he had offended her in some way.

Well, there went Glacia's and Merla's "friendship". Hopefully, the whole matter will blow over soon and Glacia will learn why you don't make friends with an Inverted Pokemon. I'm still waiting for the day when Merla slits every Pokemon in the base's throat (except for Catal - he somehow made Merla loyal to him, which I thought was impossible before).

"No." An malevolent hate plastered itself across Merla's face. "In fact, you can consider our… "friendship"... over, Catal." Merla's face then contorted. "A**hole."

I'm pretty sure the classroom's mind collectively exploded at that point. Merla was known in the class for being three things. One, she was an Inverted Larvesta, with everything that entailed. Two, because of her being Inverted she was evil. Three, the only reason she hasn't burned the building down is because of her loyalty to Catal.

Everybody stared, including me. Sweat began to run down my back as I considered the implications of what we just learned. I've always had a sneaking suspicion that Merla was the one that pranked us, by orders of Catal. Kaori and Ivan have also probably figured it out as well, but didn't want to admit it - no one really wanted to directly confront Merla.

From what I heard from other classmates the first week of classes was hell on Earth. Nobody felt safe around Merla, and everybody watched their backs obsessively. Kaori and Ivan spent the first week outside the bedroom because they worried that Merla was going to kill them as they slept.

That nightmare of a time ended, or so I've heard, because Catal _somehow_ gained Merla's loyalty and purportedly told Merla she couldn't kill anyone from our class. The nightmares stopped, and Catal soon became the center of Merla's attention. I saw another Inverted Pokemon before, an Inverted Growlithe, and it was _magnitudes_ scarier than Merla is. It sounds like Merla was just like that Inverted Growlithe was, before Catal came and intervened.

I now understand why Merla had love in her eyes earlier - if Merla is as free as she was before… somehow, I also understand why she was smiling. I also understand why everyone else wasn't.

All of a sudden, everyone scrammed. Rai, Lyli, and Stop went over to their corner of the room, Stop's heaving footsteps reverberating throughout the entire room synchronized with Lyli's frantic flaps. Ken, Jenga, and Catal retreated, panic flickering across Catal's face as he realized what had just happened.

Kaori and Ivan looked beyond scared at what just happened. I don't blame them - they probably had memories of what Merla was like before Catal got to her. I was feeling beyond scared at the moment myself, my horn magnifying the emotion ten-fold. Speaking of which…

I Teleported to the back of the room. Normally, I would just sit in the front of the room because it was usually empty, but Merla and Glacia were near the front of the room as well. I didn't want to run, either - Teleporting is so much faster.

At everyone's quick escape, Glacia looked hurt - I don't even know how she's still alive at this point, in all honesty. She may be going for the record of how long one can take to throw their life away, but there was no other reason she should be as near as Merla as she should be.

Maybe we should have been more clear on how DANGEROUS Inverted Pokemon are?

I then noticed what Shift and Naetle were doing. Shift was desperately trying to hold Naetle back... _from_ Merla and Glacia? At that moment I wondered if Naetle was alright in the head - trying to make friends with a mentally-chained Merla was idiotic, but trying to make friends with a free Merla was beyond suicide. I honestly wonder if he ever met an Inverted Pokemon before Merla, or even if he heard the nightmare stories thrown around about Inverted Pokemon.

Shift was, unfortunately unsuccessful, and Naetle slipped out of Shift's metal-toothed grasp and walked toward Glacia and Merla. I could only hope he was there to rescue Glacia or something.

"Hello! My name is... Naetle." Naetle looked a little pained upon saying this, which he always did - he had an aversion to his name, for some reason. "You can just call me Turtwig, though. What's your name?"

"Glacia." Glacia unsurely responded. "Nice to meet you, Naetle."

"Nice to meet you too." Naetle sat down in one of the front row seats. "Come on, sit next to me." Naetle beckoned to Shift. "Come on, Shift - come sit with us."

Shift looked beyond scared - he had a Type weakness to Merla, which wasn't affected by Inversion. He stood there for a couple of seconds, then slowly went his way over to where Naetle was sitting and started floating next to him. His eyes never left Merla the whole time.

Glaica looked happy - I guess she rightly expected a life of solitude for becoming friends with Merla. She happily sat down next to Naetle and began chatting with him. Before she started talking, she addressed Merla. "If you want to sit down, Merla, you can sit down."

Merla was silent for a couple of moments. The class watched with bated breath, Shift shifting his eyes about for an escape route as Naetle stalwartly waited for Merla's response.

"Alright, Lady Glacia." She then sat down next to Glacia, on the other side of her.

Lady… Glacia? What could she…?

No… You have to be kidding me. The love Merla had felt this morning...

Somehow, SOMEHOW, Glacia managed to _undo_ the loyalty Merla had to Catal and make Merla loyal to _her_ instead, and somehow she made Merla _love_ her! That had to be why Merla was standing so close to her without her feeling threatened in any way - she managed the same trick Catal had, except it was _ten times stronger_ and Merla LOVED HER.

At this point, I was beyond scared. I figured that Catal must have coerced or bribed Merla into being loyal to him, and then used some strange Dark powers to keep that loyalty in check. Yet Glacia had no access to such…

Memories of yesterday in the training room flashed through my head.

Oh _crap_ \- she was… _oh crap_.

As this realization trickled through the classroom, Pokemon began to look at Glacia with fearful eyes. She had, all of the sudden, become the scariest person in the classroom. The _dangerous_ power she now wielded with Merla… if it could be extended to other Inverted Pokemon.

The door opened again, and Tom came through the door, panting and looking exhausted beyond all belief. I was the only person who paid attention to him at first, though - everyone else was too focused on staring at Glacia and Merla talking animatedly with Naetle (well, Glacia was talking animatedly - Merla was just listening blankly.)

Then, out of the corner of her eye, Glacia noticed Tom and beckoned him over. "Hey Tom, come meet my new friends."

Tom slowly spoke, stuttering over his words. "N-nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too," Naetle spoke, smiling. He held out one of his legs. "I'm Naetle the Turtwig, although you can just call me Turtwig - you must be Tom the…" Naetle trailed off, frowning. Guess he never heard of Litwicks before, then.

"I'm Tom the Litwick." An appendage slowly appeared out of Tom's wax, and they shook hands. The whole spectacle was bizarre to everyone watching. He looked at Shift. "Nice to meet you too."

Shift began to stammer. "I-I'm Sh-Shift the K-Klink." Tom nodded exhaustedly.

Naetle shifted over a space and motioned to Tom. "Come sit next to me - so you and Glacia are our new classmates?" Tom wearily nodded, and he plopped down in the seat next to Naetle.

Their chat resumed, with Tom adding a few tidbits here and there as well. Slowly the tense atmosphere of the class dissipated and Pokemon began to whisper, theories and ideas being thrown everywhere about the two mysterious new classmates. I didn't partake in any of the whisperings and instead thought about Tom.

… Actually, it's best that I _don't_ think about Tom. I don't know why I react the way I do when I touch them. Maybe it's a Ghost thing - but it feels strangely pleasant, and every time I thought about it yesterday I had to spend a few minutes getting my concentration back. I can't help but feel shy around him, either.

Of course, I'm not going to ask Kaori or Ivan about these feelings. I barely talk to them (yesterday I had only wanted to introduce Tom and Glacia to some friendly classmates) and talking to them about Tom would be ridiculous, given his relationship with Glacia, the new pariah.

Ms. Gaw comes into the classroom, looking as bored as she always does. She takes a roll call as usual. Then she comes to Merla's name and looks up to find her.

She then spots Merla at the front of the room, and her Spinda face turns as pale and pasty as my skin. She gets the idea quickly and finishes the roll call, not even bothering to introduce Tom or Glacia.

The lesson, for the most part, is largely ignored by me and my classmates. No one can seem to focus on the lesson given the bombshell we had been given. In fact, the only one paying rapt attention to Ms. Gaw was Glacia -figures that she was the studious type.

That reminded me that I should be paying attention to the lesson as well, so I started listening. Ms. Gaw was talking about Gummis, and how they stimulated the brain cells and made more neural connections to increase intelligence. It was interesting but somewhat pointless - Gummis were a rarity everywhere. From Glacia's look, however, she wanted to hunt the world for Gummis and eat them all.

After the extensive (hours long) study on Gummis, our class with Ms. Gaw finished. The room quickly vacated, Ms. Gaw included, as everyone left for the cafeteria. Of course, everyone parted around the little group in the middle. I, meanwhile, kept myself hidden - I didn't want to make myself known to the little group that had formed now.

The class made its way to the cafeteria, with the Pariahs in the back. I quickly went into the herbivore's line and watched the Pariahs carefully.

Naetle was arguing with Shift. Shift apparently wanted to go to the library and read a little bit, while Naetle insisted that they talk to Tom and Glacia. I knew their biologies very well (Ms. Kiss made sure that I knew the basic biologies of everyone in the base) so I knew Shift didn't need to eat, while Naetle needed some vegetation like I did. Eventually, Naetle won and headed into the line behind me.

Glacia went to the carnivore's line like last night. Everyone allowed her to cut in line, probably out of fear. Glacia, for the most part, didn't seem to mind. Only Catal, who was angrily glaring at Glacia, chose not to let her pass. The enmity between the two was as clear as day, and I wondered when the two were going to come to a head.

Tom headed for the herbivore's line like I did, and was only a couple of places behind me in the line. I kept my head down so that Tom wouldn't speak to me. The reason why, of course, was Merla, who was right behind Tom. They didn't talk much, as Merla only heeded Glacia's command. Still, Tom tried to converse with Merla, and while he was mostly unsuccessful, Merla did offer a few words in return - which was more than she had offered anyone before.

To overpower an Inverted Pokemon's natural evil and even make them willing to talk to their friends… what did Glacia _do_?

At this point the curiosity was overwhelming. I decided to eavesdrop on the group, so when they joined up at an empty table I took a seat at a neighboring empty table and listened in.

For a few seconds. I had forgotten that since they were pariahs no one wanted to sit near them. I was the only person in the whole cafeteria near the group, and that had made me extremely noticeable.

Tom apparently had finally noticed me and beckoned me over. "Hey, Vinia, come sit with us." Naetle and Glacia noticed me as well. Glacia looked a little peeved (which sent chills up my spine) and Naetle looked ambivalent - we didn't really talk that much.

Well, there goes secrecy. Might as well roll with it - if I'm going to be in danger, Teleporting will only delay my demise.

"Uh, sure." I took my leafy meal and sat down next to Shift - he was a nice person, after all. "So… what are we talking about?"

"Just about anything, really. Glacia has a lot of questions and we have a lot of answers." Naetle deftly explained. "Tom has a fun perspective on things as well." Shift was looking around, shifting his eyes everywhere - it didn't look like he agreed with Naetle.

"Oh. Well, that's nice. Don't mind me, I'll just be listening and eating." There wasn't that much to say after that - it looked like they were having fun just introducing Glacia and Tom to the Base, giving them a more in-depth understanding of the workings there. Honestly, Naetle had a surprisingly in-depth knowledge of how the Base worked.

"Say, how are you going to prepare for the exams? - you guys sound really unprepared for all this," Naetle asked, tilting his reptilian head.

"Well, I'm a quick study - I can figure out most of it. I'll use the library as a study tool as well, and will probably memorize most of the curriculum by the end of the week, at the latest. I'll be able to do this rather easily." Glacia confidently expressed. "After all, if you and Glacia were able to catch up in such a short time I will probably be able too." Oh, it looks like she knows that Naetle entered the class in the school year as well… did I tell her that? I don't remember if I told her that.

Naetle shook his head. "Yeah, but I had a lot of experience in Mystery Dungeons before now - I've been in a lot of them, and have figured out a lot of the tips and tricks by now, so a lot of the class was just learning the official stuff."

Naetle had been in Mystery Dungeons before - that was actually rather interesting. I cast my mind to the day before yesterday, when we were traversing the Floral Fields Dungeon, and tried to remember how nervous Naetle was when we were waiting for Mr. Pix to come back. Now that I think about it, he wasn't really nervous at all - in fact, he was spending his time consoling Shift who had been hyperventilating at the moment.

"Really? How many have you been in?" Glacia asked, her ears perked up.

Naetle blushed. "I've been in a _lot_ of Mystery Dungeons - the number of individual Dungeons numbers in the double digits, I think," Naetle confessed.

I wasn't detecting any guilt or shame from my horn, so either he was an incorrigible liar or he really _had_ been in that many Mystery Dungeons before - which was an incredible feat for someone who never actually had formal training.

"I think Vinia also has had some training with Mystery Dungeons before now - she seemed to know a lot of the topics before we had even discussed them." Okay, don't panic, just derail the conversation _now_.

"So you guys think you'll be able to catch up easily?" I asked her, hoping to change the subject.

Glacia nodded confidently. "Well, I'll be able to - it would be ridiculous if I _couldn't_ after all?" Glacia said arrogantly. "Although Tom might need a little bit of help." She leaned in a little closer to the table. "Tom has amnesia, so he'll need a little bit more help than a normal person would."

"Hey!" Tom interjected, annoyed. "I'm an amnesiac, not stupid."

"Doesn't change the fact that you'll need help, Tom. Last I remembered you didn't know the type chart."

"Y-you don't even know the t-type chart?" Shift stuttered.

"I know a little bit about it." Tom staunchly denied.

"What are the types you're weak too, then." Glacia pressed. I was starting to feel a little bit uncomfortable - they were pressing Tom hard now.

"Water, Rock, Ground, Dark… and Ghost!" Tom took a little bit of time, but he managed to answer the question. I was a little surprised - from what Ms. Kiss told me he had no memories whatsoever, except for how to talk, breathe, and move. He certainly didn't know the type chart, that's for sure.

Glacia blinked. "Right - how do you know _that_ , but you didn't know how to stand up straight and move when I first met you."

Tom quickly explained. "Well, there's another Ghost/Fire type in the base too - Alice the Lampent. We met in the hallways last night and she told me she was going to be my mentor, and help me learn the things I don't know."

Alice the Lampent? Now that I think about it, I thought I saw a Lampent around the base from time to time, but I never bothered talking to her. "What have you learned from her so far?" I asked, curious.

Tom shrugged, then scooped the rest of the leafy greens into his mouth. "Well, she spent the first couple of hours just teaching me how my body worked - you know, we can eat pretty much anything, but only rarely." Tom blushed a little bit. "Eating all that meat yesterday was a mistake," he bashfully admitted. "The weird raccoon thing we had eaten was apparently enough for at least a week."

Racoon? What's that?

Before I could ask that question, however, Tom continued. "She also spent some time making sure I know my types and how they relate to other types. According to her, that's the most important thing to know - most of my 'movepool', whatever that is, is going to be Fire and Ghost Type moves."

"Your Movepool is the different Moves you can use, Tom," Glacia explained offhandedly. "My Movepool is Tackle, Quick Attack, Sand Attack, and Shadow Ball."

Tom nodded in understanding. "Oh. Then my current Movepool is Ember and Astonish."

Glacia looked surprised. "You know Astonish?"

Tom nodded again. "Alice taught me it this morning - she said that it is the weakest move a Ghost Type can use. It's just a small burst of Ghost-energy and a shout, so it was mostly just learning to use Ghost type energy." Tom's face grew pensive. "It felt… weird. Like I could be anywhere of anything."

Naetle coughed. "Uh, guys, lunch is over - it's time to go to Mr. Pix's class."

Tom scrunched his waxy face as the rest of us finished our food in a flash. "Who?"

"Mr. Pix is our practicals teacher - he teaches us how to fight," I explained as we started to walk to Mr. Pix's class. "Of course, since we're going to be Venturers we had to enter a Mystery Dungeon at some point - that point was the day before yesterday, by the way - so we could get some experience."

Glacia's eyes widened as we left the table. "Really? You guys went into a Mystery Dungeon?"

"Yeah, we went to Floral Fields. It has five small floors and some weak pokemon." Honestly, when said like that it sounded kind of boring. "Oh, and it was the birthplace of the smart, courageous, and handsome explorer Wigglytuff."

When I said this, Naetle snorted into his leg, barely containing in giggles. I failed to see what was funny. "He was the greatest mind of his generation." At this point, Naetle exploded into full-blown laughter and we all stared at him as he wiped away one of his tears.

As I answered her, I noticed the other Pokemon avoid us. It looked like I was going to be a Pariah as well. Now there were six of us - Glacia, Tom, Merla, Naetle, Shift (who was slowly resigning himself to this), and me. Merla hadn't said a word during the entirety of lunch - she simply sat there and watched.

We entered Mr. Pix's room and continued our small talk as we waited for Mr. Pix to enter the room. Within five minutes he entered, looking slightly tired but nonetheless as chipper as ever. "Good afternoon, class. As you already know you have a couple of new classmates - Tom and Glacia, I believe."

At Tom and Glacia's affirmations, he continued. "Since they're new and you guys did well with the Mystery Dungeon a couple of days ago, I'm giving you guys a treat. I have to examine Tom and Glacia to see where they stand with their fighting abilities, so we're going to have them fight today."

Once they heard this the majority of the class began to shy away. I realized that Glacia seemed scary (and honestly that strange power I still think she wields is fearsome), but this seemed ridiculous.

"Well, this is unprecedented." Mr. Pix commented. Mr. Pix began wagging his finger. "Eeny, meeny, miny, you!" He pointed to a frightened Kase, a Spheal. "Kase, you're going to fight one of them today." Kase looked ready to pass out and roll on his ball-like body. Mr. Pix took another look around. "And the other fighter is…"

Then Catal stepped forward. "Mr. Pix, I'd like to participate."

There was a large murmuring when Catal said this - and I could see why. Glacia had essentially stolen Merla off of him - he'll be looking for retribution. Mr. Pix looked concerned for a second, then shrugged it off. "Alright, Catal, be my guest."

At this Tom began to shake. I didn't need my horn to tell me he was nervous. One of the fighters was a Water Type, which he was probably afraid of. Honestly, the best pairing would be Tom with Catal and Kase with Glacia. Glacia would hopefully _not_ use any strange powers on Kase, and Catal might go easy on Tom.

Wait, we discovered his Nip…

"Let's see now… Kase, let's pair you up with Tom. Catal, you'll be paired up with Glacia." The murmurings increased as I winced. There goes any hope of a type advantage - Water beats Fire and Steel resists Normal. "Kase and Tom, you'll go first."

Kase cheered as Tom let out a sigh. Honestly, I was still a little worried about him - it wasn't like he was any safer with a Water Type out on the field.

Mr. Pix quickly constructed a makeshift ring and we all crowded along the edge of the border as Tom and Kase got into the ring. "Alright, rules are simple. To win, force your opponent out of the ring. Damage should only be enough to hurt - causing your opponent to faint or worse is grounds for disqualification and/or expulsion from the Venturing program. No one is allowed to talk during the battle except for me - this is going to replicate an actual battle without commentary"

Catal gained a gleam in his eye - expulsion wasn't a worry for him, not when the pseudo-autocratic Captain Falcon was around.

Tom and Kase got into the ring as Mr. Pix began the countdown, jumping out of the ring as he did so. "Three, two, one, START!"

Tom immediately fired off an Ember at Kase, which was immediately overcome and doused by a Water Gun that was simultaneously fired off by Kase. The Water Gun lost its momentum and fell to the floor in a sizzling puddle, but Kase was already firing off more blasts. Tom's eyes widened and he immediately began running for his life - well, ghosts are already dead, but still.

It was a game of Meowth and Rattata as Kase continually shot off Water Guns and Tom desperately tried to dodge his barrage. Soon enough the floor was littered with water. At this point, it was obvious Tom was going to lose, but Tom held on.

Suddenly, Tom began a manic charge toward Kase. Kase panicked as he sent a Water Gun veering slightly off to Tom's side. Tom dodged the blast and closed the distance between them.

Tom closed his eyes and brought his hands to his face. He loudly shouted "BOO!" as ghostly energy rippled from his face. Kase flinched as ghostly energy entered his body and caused him to shake violently. Tom followed up with another Astonish as the battle shifted its tides…

… for a second. Then Kase gathered himself and began rolling in place. Tom slowly stopped off his onslaught of Astonishes as he stared at Kase.

Kase then shot off point blank toward Tom, his Rollout sending Tom flying. Tom crashed through the line as my classmates scattered.

"And MATCH!" Mr. Pix shouted, waving his Clefable arms. A small portion of the class began to quietly cheer - the match was enjoyed, at the very least. Tom got up from where he had landed and began to blink, before noticing where he was.

"I was knocked out?" He spun around, taking a look at everything, then shook his head. "Whoops." Kase came out of the ring as well, positively ecstatic. As Kase began to bask in his triumph and the admiration he was receiving from the rest of his classmates, Tom walked over to him. "Nice match," Tom admitted with a painful smile. "I still need to work a lot on my moves and stuff."

Mr. Pix beamed. "Yes, Yes, Exactly, Tom. The purpose of these matches is not to see who is stronger but to see where we are weak. You still have a lot to work with battle - Kase has much more experience than you. Even so, your efforts were admirable for a beginner, Tom."

Mr. Pix stepped back into the ring. "Catal, Glacia, get in here - it's time for your fight now." My nervousness increased - from what I saw earlier today, Glacia and Tom held a large animosity for each other. Since we had a Healer, injuries weren't considered so dangerous, so Mr. Pix might not intervene until it's too late.

Glacia and Tom faced each other, hate gleaming in their eyes as they viewed the other with contempt. My other classmates, who had crowded around the ring before with Tom's and Kase's battle, gave the arena a wide berth. Beside me, Merla began vibrating. I slowly edged away from her - it seems like Merla was reacting unpleasantly to the battle that was unfolding in the ring. I wasn't going to bother either of us and try to assuage her worries - I don't think she will take that well.

Mr. Pix stepped out of the ring and began his countdown again. "Three, two, one, START!"

Glacia immediately charged up a Shadow Ball and sent it toward Catal, flying at breakneck speeds - she was certainly getting a lot faster with those. Catal chuckled, and with a black-bladed hand, cut the Shadow Ball in two. The Shadow Ball proceeded to explode, sending Catal back a few feet but leaving him none the worse for the wear. Glacia gasped, as if realizing something, then ran straight at Catal with a Quick Attack.

As she approached the border where Catal was patiently waiting, Catal created another glowing hand. I dreaded the collision and what would happen.

Except that's not what happened. As she got close to where Catal was standing she stopped feeding her Quick Attack, jumped in the air and twisted around completely. Catal looked her in disbelief - everyone looked at her in disbelief.

Then Glacia began kicking dust up into Catal's eyes, and I smiled. Sand Attack - that was a strange choice of a move.

Too bad it was completely ineffective. Catal's eyes, which were made to withstand any kind of weather - Sandstorms included - easily took the Sand Attack and slashed at Glacia. Glacia screamed and next to me Merla's flames burned. I sneaked a look into Merla's face, just to see her reaction, and almost immediately wished I didn't. In Merla's face was pure unbridled rage, and I prepared to Teleport in case things got hairy.

Glacia was sent flying by Catal's attack and landed in a heap. Catal jumped in the air and brought his blades down upon Glacia. Luckily Glacia picked herself up and dodged at the last second, and continued to fight.

Unfortunately, any advantage that Glacia had garnered for herself vanished immediately. She was weak where Catal was still strong, with Catal in the dead center of the ring.

Well, he wasn't in the center of the ring for long. He soon came running up to Glacia, claws glowing black. Glacia used a Quick Attack to dodge, but Catal anticipated her increased speed and altered his run to account for it. He managed to close the gap between them and began to slash repeatedly. Glacia desperately tried to dodge but was beginning to accumulate nicks and scratches from Catal's continuous assault.

However, I noticed that in her dodging Glacia was turning Catal around, to the point where Catal was closer to the border than he was. Glacia glowed with the light of Quick Attack, and Catal stood in a running stance, prepared to chase after her again.

He was completely unprepared for Glacia's Tackle, which she immediately switched into. Catal skidded backward, digging his feet into the ground as he stopped barely a foot in front of the border.

Glacia came in for a Quick Attack, looking to finish Catal off. Catal pulled himself together, however, and instead of slashing at Glacia, ducked under her. Glacia flew over Catal and crossed over the line.

"And MATCH!" Mr. Pix shouted again. Catal stood in the ring, victorious but hurt. Relieved whispers started up - Glacia, a terrifying unknown, had been beaten.

On one side of me, Naetle whistled (with difficulty), appreciating the battle. However, I could tell he was holding Catal with contempt. On the other side of me, Merla gained a look of deepest loathing in her eyes and looked at Catal with a burning gaze. I briefly wondered again what Glacia had done to win over Merla, but decided I would ask her it another day - the change was good, at the very least.

There were no cheers this time. Both fighters were disliked by the majority of the classmates, so any victory was bad for them. Mr. Pix, however, kept his cheer.

"Excellent fight you two - that was a fine battle, one of the best I've ever seen from any of my students." Mr. Pix confessed. "Catal, good job, but you need to work on your situational awareness and your dodging skills - you were tricked too easily by Glacia multiple times, and she landed several hits on you that you could have avoided." Catal nodded, yet the loathing in his eyes toward Glacia remained bright.

"Glacia, you need to account for your opponent's strengths and weaknesses, as well as what moves will actually be effective - the Sand Attack was the worst move possible you could have chosen." Glacia glared at Mr. Pix but grudgingly nodded. "That was an amazing battle you two! I expect to see more like it in the future.

"Well, that was all for today, guys. Use the battles today as a learning experience. Think about what you guys saw today and be ready to tell me tomorrow what you learned from it. Class dismissed." The class began to bustle for the doors, but Mr. Pix held out his hand again. "Oh, and the following students need to remain - I need to talk to them."

Mr. Pix cleared his throat. "Catal, Tom, Glacia, Kase, and Vinia, you five need to stay. Alright, everyone else can leave." The rest of the class left, and soon there were only seven Pokemon left in the room - Me, Tom, Glacia, Kase, Catal, Mr. Pix, and Merla (who hadn't left yet).

Mr. Pix chose to ignore Merla and spoke to us. "To Catal, Tom, Glacia, and Kase - I'm happy with the battles today. You guys did exceptionally well, and that's the kind of power we need in our forces." Kase made a noise of happiness, while Tom and Glacia smiled. Catal just sneered, while Merla was silent. "Kase, you can leave." Kase immediately rolled to the door.

"To the rest of you, it has to do with our field trip the day before yesterday." Oh, right, I completely forgot about that. "Vinia and Catal have to re-do the Mystery Dungeon, and Tom and Glacia have to actually do it. To solve these problems, the four of you are going together to Floral Fields in two weeks. Tom and Glacia have gone through a Mystery Dungeon before, so I'm not very worried about them. Prepare yourselves, though."

Mr. Pix headed for the door. "You guys can leave as well. I'll see you guys tomorrow"

* * *

(Later That Night)

*crackle*

"Ah, why won't this blasted thing work?" *thump* "Much better."

"Catal? Is this you?"

"Yes, Madam Nyx, it's me. I've come to give my weekly report today."

"Well, guess what - you're giving your report to Father - he's heard a recent account from Night about what happened, and he wants a report from your own mouth, Catal."

*gulp* "Y-yes, Madam Nyx."

*crackle*

*crackle*

"Agent Name and ID"

"C-Catal, #624"

*rustle* *rustle*

"So, Agent #624, let me get this right. You are under the direct command of my daughter Nyx and have been tasked with recruiting an Inverted Larvesta, I believe. Is this correct?"

"Y-yes, sir."

"Reports from Night originating from her subordinate, one Captain Falcon, indicates that the Inverted Larvesta, which you had brought under your influence successfully nine months ago, has left your company for the pursuit of another. This is abnormal behavior for an Inverted - explain."

"I-I can't, sir."

"Explain."

"I d-don't know what happened. Everything began going awry yesterday, when two new recruits, Tom and Glacia, appeared. In regards to the side project you permitted, the Venipede recruitment, it was going well until the Nip was discovered by Tom."

"Yes, I'm well aware of the Venipede situation. Night told me that Captain Falcon had to pull several strings to keep you three within the Venturing Program because of it. With that, my main concern is whether the recruitment is still salvageable."

"Unfortunately, the Nip was confiscated, so the Venipede is now on his way to recovering from his addiction. In addition to this, the Torchic is actively working against us - he realizes what I'm trying to do."

"A pity, then. That project is a failure so your request for extra Nip will be denied. We have better uses for it than a potential recruit, anyway. This, of course, will look bad on your record."

"Yes, sir… "

"Going on to the main matter, inform me about the recruitment of the Inverted Larvesta."

"The recruitment was a standard procedure - become an ally to the Inverted Larvesta over the course of a few months and solidify the friendship henceforth. Use the Suppressors to weaken the Inversion's mental influence and make the recruit dependent on me so that they will follow me and become a member of HUMANITY."

"Good, you remember. Then, what happened?"

"Until this morning, everything had been going as planned - in fact, even better. The Inverted Larvesta, Merla, had attached to me so quickly once I used the Suppressors that within the week I was confident we would be able to leave without any complaints from her. However, by this point, I had begun to spin my web around the Venipede for his recruitment, and decided that it would be suspicious if I left so quickly."

"Understandable. Continue."

"I was making preparations to leave with Merla from last night, but I can't act on them. This morning, I called Merla to sit over with us as usual in class, which was an oddity - usually, she comes as fast as she can by herself once she wakes up. She was standing next to Glacia, another of the new recruits. When I called her over she refused and began to insult me. This continued on for the rest of the day. Inverted Pokemon cannot be Hypnotized, so I have no idea why this happened."

"... how did she insult you?"

"Sir?"

"Answer the question."

"... she called me an a**hole."

*silence*

*chuckles*

*laughter*

*wheezes*

*sigh*

*silence*

"... and why would she call you that?"

*silence*

"One policy of recruitment is to only be known as the Inverted Pokemon's loyal friend. How did you act after you had ensured her loyalty?"

*silence*

"... your silence is telling enough. Callousness and unnecessary cruelty isn't something we condone at HUMANITY, Catal. We conduct illegal operations, yes, but we have _class_."

*silence*

"Either way, do you know how this change was incited, for future reference?"

"No, sir. It must have occurred the night before, but I don't know how Glacia converted Merla."

"Glacia? Converted? Explain."

"Well, sir, Glacia was completely unsurprised at the change in Merla's behavior. I can only assume this change was completely expected and caused by her."

"True… if I remember from one of our freelancer's reports - Henka, I believe his name was - Tom is an amnesiac, while Glacia thinks she is a time-traveler… if this conversion phenomenon is reliable…"

"Sir?"

"... alright. We're going to begin a covert recruitment of those two. Secrecy will be essential, of course, as always. How is your relationship with the two?"

*silence*

"What was I thinking? In all honesty, while you have made this a veritable nightmare it is still salvageable. You are going to have to be completely passive - no Nip and no recruitment. You will assist Night with her endeavors in recruiting the two - her daughter has already made friends with them, after all, so we might have a connection to work off of."

"You will also spy on them. Rely on my daughter to do the recruitment, and follow her every direction. With luck, we will recover the Inverted Larvesta in the process"

"Yes, Lord Pyre."

"You are dismissed."

* * *

A Chandelure snickers.

"A**hole."


	8. 8 - A Curious Box

(Tom - Two Weeks Later - Venture Base)

*BOOM*

*SIZZLE*

*CRASH*

Glacia, Vinia, Catal, and I weren't participating in Mr. Pix's class today. Today was the day that we were going to go to the Mystery Dungeon, so Mr. Pix told us that we weren't going to have our usual practice like everyone else so that we could conserve our energy.

At this, Catal scoffed and then bragged that he wasn't going to have much trouble with the Dungeon. Vinia looked ready to explode at him for saying that, but luckily, Glacia managed to hold her back. I said nothing - the memories of Catal's attack on me were still rather fresh, and I knew that if I said anything I would turn his ire on me again.

While we waited, I looked at some of my other friends. Naetle, the fun but somewhat serious guy, was training with a fervor. Naetle knew an impressive five moves (well, impressive to me). He said he knew Tackle, Withdraw, Absorb, Razor Leaf, and Curse - which was a kind of cool name.

Withdraw was a move that Naetle used to bring his limbs and head within his shell. While that wasn't special by itself, as it was just a motion any Pokemon with a shell could do, the Move had more to it. After Naetle withdrew his body into his shell he would proceed to bulge against the inside of his shell.

While I thought that that would simply break his shell, Naetle doing it from the inside apparently compacted the soil that made up his shell, making it stronger against enemy attack.

Absorb, meanwhile, used Grass-typed Energy to suck in the opponent's nutrients, like a vacuum. When Naetle decided to demonstrate it, it looked like he was leeching off all of the opponent's health. It looked a little scary until I realized that it was basically my Flame lighting skill, only instead of it lighting a Flame, it restored his health. Razor Leaf consisted of Naetle shooting off leaves from his back like bullets, hardening them with Grass-typed Energy.

By far the most interesting of his moves was Curse. According to him, I was also able to learn the move, but it would have a radically different effect on me. Curse, for all Pokemon, involved a sacrifice for power. For non-Ghost Type Pokemon like him, it would sacrifice the speed of their muscles for bulk, increasing their offensive and defensive capabilities.

For Ghost Type Pokemon, like me, it would cut down on our health, making us weak and making it difficult for us to fight in any capacity. The trade-off, though was that our opponents would be Cursed. Other than his shudders, I wasn't able to figure out what 'Cursed' meant.

Asking Alice about it later informed me that being 'Cursed' meant that Ghostly Energy would continuously seep into you, bringing you closer and closer to Ghost World. For most Pokemon, the process would take only ten minutes, and could only be stopped by the caster of Curse deciding to take mercy on the opponent.

She then informed me that I would have to learn Pain Split before I could learn Curse since the move would drain all of the energy I needed to fight out of me. Pain Split was the few ways our evolutionary line could regain that energy and health, so for Curse to be viable in battle we needed to have Pain Split under our belt as well.

The Ghost World, for your information, is the world where all Ghost Types come from. Every single spirit comes from there, even if they come, in reality, from an Egg (learning that Pokemon hatch from Eggs was something else entirely). Each time a Ghost Type well and truly died in the Real World, they would be brought back to the Ghost World and resurrect, remembering nothing from their previous lives.

It was strange to think about, that death was not permanent, but Alice assured me that since our memories were erased Death had the same impact on us as it did on any other living creature.

Going back to Naetle, his extensive and near-obsessive training regiment made him much stronger than any other classmate (other than Catal, who was the strongest). Right now, he was working on getting Bite to work correctly - Naetle seemed to know how to do it but wasn't able to get the Dark-type energy working right.

Merla didn't have as many moves as the other Pokemon did. According to Glacia, Larvesta (both normal and Inverted) had a small selection of moves to learn from. What moves they did learn, on the other hand, they learned well. Merla was able to use Ember like I was, but her freezing cold Embers were much larger in size than mine or Ken's (which I could tell made him slightly insecure). She could use Absorb too, like Naetle, which was a sight to behold.

She also could use a move called String Shot, in which she shot out a string of sticky fluid that quickly hardened into an immobilizing cage of ropes. She could use it very well, and I shuddered to think how it could be used in battles. String Shot was possibly the scariest Move I have seen, to date.

Merla was scowling - she knew what was going to happen later today, with Glacia, Vinia, Catal, and I all going to the Mystery Dungeon. Merla was definitely the worrying type, I could tell.

Over the past couple of weeks, I have seen her stay near Glacia constantly, always hovering around her if Glacia needed anything. It was a bit creepy, to be honest, but Glacia seemed to accept it in its entirety. I, of course, tried some overtures of friendship. Merla rebuffed the overtures with a sneer at first, but I kept working at it, wearing her down. Nowadays she isn't as caustic to me, acting somewhat polite to me. It was definitely a work in progress.

Shift, meanwhile, was practicing his Thundershock. Thundershock was an interesting move - he moved his gears at a blinding speed, generating electricity between them. Soon, within a second or two, his gears began to crackle. He then released the electricity in a small bolt, which flew through the air to hit a practice dummy. It was honestly mesmerizing.

Through asking him I knew that he also knew the moves Vice Grip and Charge. With Vice Grip, he basically squeezed his enemies within the tooths of the gears, grinding them into a bloody mush (descriptions provided by one Sadistic Glacia, amid a retching bunch of gears). Charge was much more pleasant to hear about - it was basically just Shift generating electricity in the same method as before, only storing it for later attacks instead of releasing it in a one-go Thundershock.

Shift, during the past couple of weeks, acclimatized to our group fairly well. His guardians, a bunch of Klangs, didn't really mind that he was friends with an Inverted Pokemon - all they cared about was that Shift was showing some spine, metaphorically speaking. Shift, however, didn't seem to agree.

As the session winded down to a close, Mr. Pix came over to us and began to explain what was going to happen. Clapping his hands, he spoke. "Alright, kids, here is what we're going to do. We're going to go over to the Floral Field dungeon. I'll explain what you have to do on the way there." He started walking toward the exit and beckoned us to follow him. "Come on."

Within five minutes or so we had left the cavernous Venture Base for the larger Jeden City. As we left the Venture Base, a couple of passersby stopped what they were doing to stare at us, before returning to their work with a put-upon look on their faces.

Jeden City was an interesting place. I had only left the Venture Base a couple of times in the past couple of weeks, so Jeden City was still a relative unknown to me. Strangely primitive technologies lined the insides of storefronts. The five of us walked on an uneven cobbled path, which had undulating twists and turns in it. It took a short while, but we reached the outskirts of the city.

After talking to some of the guards, Mr. Pix led us out of Jeden City and into the lush wilds. The area right out of Jeden City was strangely scenic, like a postcard you would randomly find in the mail. A furry carpet of green covered round hills, a couple of rocks and spherical boulders dotting the slopes.

Carefully navigating our way through the hills, Mr. Pix began to speak. "Floral Field is roughly an hour outside of Jeden City and takes an hour to complete normally, kids." Mr. Pix sighed. "I believe that you kids are able to do this - you all have the abilities you need to go through this Dungeon in a Flash. All you need to do is to pull yourselves together for one day."

The scowl that formed on Catal's face as a result twisted his visage. I could tell that while it was possible for Glacia, Vinia, or I to willingly work with a Catal - a miracle to be sure, but still possible - Catal would sooner leave the Venturing Program entirely than willingly work with us.

Glacia turned up her nose at Catal in response, tilting her head snootily away from his face. Vinia began to turn red, looking like a pimple about to burst.

This group of four was not ready for any sort of 'teamwork', whatsoever.

Mr. Pix frowned. "You four should at least try to get along - good Venturers are those who can work with others, even if it displeases them." Nobody dignified Mr. Pix's lesson with a response. Mr. Pix sighed again. "Well, we've arrived, anyway, so you guys are responsible for what you're going to do now."

Mr. Pix went over to one of the rocks lining the hills next to Floral Field, picked it up, and began to play with it. "Have fun, kids, and good luck. To work alone, you'll need it."

Catal scoffed at what Mr. Pix said, then headed past the Boundary Line, where the Mystery Dungeon met the real world. Before he crossed the line, however, he turned to address the three of us. "Have fun, you three. I'm not going to stick with you guys even if you paid me a Meowth's fortune. I'd rather be captured than stick with you." Spitting at our feet, he crossed the line.

Glacia and Vinia glared at his retreating back with a fury in their eyes. I began to wonder why he held such a large grudge against us - I mean, we hate him, sure, but that's because he tramples on every tenet of human - or, I guess, Pokemon - decency.

Glacia began to hiss. "That guy's going down." She motioned to me and Vinia. "Come on, guys. Let's show that armored ax-head what a real Venturer is like." With her pride on the line, Glacia led us past the Boundary Line.

* * *

(Floral Field 1F)

I was not ready to walk back into a Mystery dungeon after only a little over two weeks. The air in the Mystery Dungeon clung to my wax like a thick fog, pressing against me from all sides. I felt I was being compressed.

Floral Field was entirely unlike Castle Rock (what the first Dungeon we were in was reportedly being called) in some ways, though. Castle Rock was a large and cavernous system of interconnecting tunnels, with plenty of Zubats, Geodudes, and Dewpiders. Castle Rock increased my nervousness simply by existing.

Floral Field, on the other hand, was more of a grassy hedge maze, with large shrubbery acting as the tunnel walls. Trying to go over it or burning it, however, would net as much result as banging your head against a brick wall hoping to bring it down.

Either way, I forcefully shook off the squeezing sensation and paid attention to what Glacia was saying.

"... and that's what we're going to do. Got it?" She asked imperially.

"Uh… could you repeat that?" I asked, shame in my voice. I wasn't paying as much attention to what Glacia was saying as I had liked.

Glacia grunted in irritation and glared at me. "Fine, I'll explain it again," she said, exasperated. "We're strong enough to go through this Dungeon quickly, without danger. Rule #5 of the Venturing Code says to never split up if we can avoid it, so we'll stick together.

"We're going to guess a path and move as quickly as possible, only taking a thirty-second break every time we enter a new room. Right now that's the best we can do since we have no Rollcall Orbs we can use."

Orbs were strange indeed. Mr. Pix brought them to class one day to demonstrate their use, as a review. Apparently, Orbs were filled with a special enchantment in them that allowed them to counteract a specific effect of the Mystery Dungeon.

There were Orbs for everything, from teleporting your teammates from across the Dungeon's floor (Rollcall Orb) to changing the weather within a Dungeon (like a Rainy or Sunny Orb) or even simply leaving the Dungeon entirely.

Unfortunately, Mr. Pix said that Orbs were not to be in use for this exercise since it would pretty much invalidate the entire point of coming here. He checked Vinia's (our Bag-holder) Bag to see if there were any Orbs in there before we began.

With Glacia's instructions given and no opposition from me or Vinia, we began to blitz through the Dungeon. To keep us all sharp we alternated fighting any Pokemon constructs we came across.

As for our fighting strengths… well, Glacia had only strengthened her moves. She told me, in private, that the defeat against Catal stung, particularly since Catal used her own strength against her. She also told me, with her white eyes shining brightly, that she was going to perfect her moves so that they would be useful.

As a result, the speed and power of her moves rose, and she became one of the top fighters of the class. While struggling at first, she quickly rose to relative dominance within our class.

Vinia, meanwhile, had worked on perfecting her moves as well, though not to the same extent as Glacia. According to her, she knew at least four moves - Growl, Confusion, Double Team, and Teleport.

Growl, which was basically her making cute sounds to disorient the opponent, was entirely useless, according to her. She demonstrated it to me as an example. While Growl did make me feel rather warm and fuzzy inside, I could barely see how the move could be successfully used in battle.

Confusion consisted of Vinia collecting her psychic powers and hit the opponent with them in a disorienting blast. The first time she demonstrated her powers to me, I shivered. Her eyes glow an eerie pink when she uses her powers, causing her hair to rise. The strength of the psychic conglomerate blew the training dummy she had used it on away. I was left feeling impressed and slightly scared.

Double Team was a fascinating move. By using an innate power within every single pokemon, a user could create illusory doubles of themselves, which do everything the user does. Having Vinia wave at me twelve times simultaneously was a strange feeling to be sure.

Asking Glacia about Double Team later revealed that every single Pokemon can use the move Double Team, though some require more coaching than others. The power required to make the doubles resided within each Pokemon (except for a choice few), so everyone was capable of using it.

Teleport was exactly what it sounded like - teleporting, Vinia gathers psychic energy within her entire body and causes a 'spacial shift' or something, moving her to wherever she needs to go. While it does cause a sense of vertigo from using it, the benefits are enormous.

I asked Vinia if she could escape the Dungeon like this, and Vinia said no. The reason why, supposedly, was because, in addition to Dungeons messing up her sense of space and time, the Dungeons had defenses against something like Teleportation. Only Orbs are able to (temporarily) control the Dungeon, after all.

As for me… well, I have to say, I think I've gotten a lot stronger over the past two weeks. I've strengthened my Ember drastically, making the flames burn brighter and longer, and I've been able to create more of them as well.

Pyrokinesis is rather fun to use, I have to say.

My Astonish has gotten stronger as well. Usually, the Astonish energy is invisible throughout the attack, never appearing. The ghost energy I summon goes straight into my opponent and… let's not go into descriptions.

* * *

(Earlier that Week)

The first time I found out what an Astonish actually does to a Pokemon, I retched.

Alice then proceeded to hit me over the waxy head for being such a drama queen. She said that I was a Ghost, and that misery followed in our footsteps. She said that we had to get used to it happening, or we'd go insane by the destruction we caused.

I had objected, of course, because I wasn't going to cause Pokemon pain willy-nilly.

"We shouldn't be doing this, Alice! I don't think… I don't think I can do this." I confessed to her, my voice breaking.

Alice looked disheartened for a moment, then proceeded to smile brilliantly. "Well, Tom, I guess our lessons have to come to an end, then."

Shock flooded my body as I desperately tried to convince her otherwise. "No, Alice, you've helped me so much!" I did the Litwick equivalent of getting on my knees. "Please don't leave."

Alice had scoffed, before walking to the door.

A desperate kind of energy flowed through me as my body reacted unconsciously. My body was a blur as I routed Alice and fired an Astonish at her, trying to do my best to stop her from leaving.

Alice simply stood there and took the blast. I realized what she was doing and tried to hold back the power I was unconsciously applying. Unfortunately, the ghostly power escaped my grasp and flowed dangerously into Alice. Alice discolored a little bit from what the super-effective Astonish was doing to her and grimaced for a second.

I apologized endlessly to her as a result, begging for forgiveness. Alice, though, laughed it off.

"Relax, Tim - I mean Tom." Tim? Who's Tim? "I wanted you to attack me."

My mouth opened for a second, then snapped shut as I realized what Alice had done.

"You… tricked me."

"Yep - I think that was the best method to cause your instincts to flare up."

Something cold entered the pit of my stomach. "Instincts?"

Alice nodded, the smile disappearing from her face. "Instincts. You are a Litwick, Tom, meaning that you are partly Ghost Type, correct?" At my nod, she continued. "Now, while that does give you a Type- Advantage, it also gives you some instincts and abilities.

"For starters, you have an innate fear of everyone your type is weak to. Since we have the same Types, Tom, we share the same primal fears - that of water, caverns, and the undiluted darkness of Dark Types. However, that isn't the end of our instincts."

"What else is there?"

"Our Instinct, as Ghosts, tells us to consume the happiness and lives of the living, and to curse anyone who dares cross our path."

A pit of fear coiled in my stomach. "What do you mean?"

"Well, have you ever lit the flame on the top of your head?" I nodded, worried. "Did you feel safe, secure, and strong when you did so?" A slight nod - those feelings did exist when I used them the first time in Castle Rock, although they had been greatly overshadowed by desperation. "That was your Instincts rewarding you. They showed themselves again when you phased through me to stop me in my tracks. Because you had wanted to make me stop so much, you had temporarily unleashed a small portion of your Ghostly powers."

The pit of fear had yet to leave my stomach, but I thought it best to ignore it for now. "Phased?"

Alice regarded me with an odd stare. "You know - Phased. Passing through a solid object."

"Like walking through walls?"

Alice nodded. "Exactly like walking through walls."

"... can I do it again?"

Alice laughed. "Everyone loves walking through walls for the first time. It's like 'Hey, Reality. Suck it!'. Of course, the novelty eventually wears off, but still." She regarded me again. "For now, don't worry about it. You still have yet to control your Instincts - you are denying them instead of working with them. It'll come to Bite you, later on."

I nodded, and Alice laughed again. "Either way, now that some of your initial fear has been washed away, let's get back to Astonish!"

* * *

In addition to teaching me how to use my Ember and Astonish more effectively, Alice also taught me Minimize and Smog.

With Minimize, I compacted the wax of my body tightly. While this did lower my mobility, it also made me small and tough, which was more than worth it. Of course, while I was currently able to shrink to half of my size, Alice said that I had a long way to go. She then proceeded to shrink to the size of a pea.

Smog was basically pollution as an offensive. I burned not my wick but the top layer of my wax, causing dangerous chemicals to flow through the air. I don't think I'll be using this one that much, though - it makes me feel awful and is really bad when you're fighting with other allied Pokemon in the room.

We headed through Floral Field's first floor, encountering a couple of "Budew", "Seedot", "Bounsweet", and "Deerling". For every battle, we alternated who was the main person fighting, while the other two watched. None of us were good at any sort of teamwork-in-battle yet, so we mostly left it to one-on-one fights. Glacia's and my growth shone, with the both of us dispatching our enemies with ease.

Vinia was even better than both of us, though. Her Confusion did massive damage to whoever it hit, and she was able to end most fights before they even truly began. If a Pokemon managed to get past her initial onslaught of Confusions, she just Teleported out of the way of their attacks. As a result, while Glacia and I gained more wounds and bruises, Vinia stayed mostly unscathed.

After a couple of fights, we managed to navigate the hallways of the first floor of Floral Field, eventually arriving at the Staircase.

* * *

(Floral Field 2F)

The second floor went surprisingly well - in fact, it went almost the same as the first floor. Navigate a couple of hallways, fight a bunch of enemies, collect anything useful you see on the ground (like Orbs, Seeds, etc.), and keep out a sharp eye.

The thing was, the last part was completely unneeded since…

"Hey, guys…" I didn't know exactly how to breach the topic. "Uh… is it just me, or is this kind of boring?"

Glacia and Vinia stared at me long and hard.

I decided to keep quiet.

* * *

(Floral Field 3F)

"Say, Vinia." Oh, thank God Glacia started the conversation. "Why do you have to do this dungeon again. I mean, Tom and I have to this because we're new to the course and all, but why are you and Catal here?"

Vinia blushed. "Oh, it's… nothing."

"That is most definitely not nothing, Vinia." Glacia accused. "Spill it."

Vinia's cheeks turned a tomato red, and I wondered how much Glacia was enjoying this respite from boredom. "It's not something I want to talk about."

Glacia studied Vinia long and hard, and Vinia turned away from Glacia in shame. Luckily, by this point, I had located the Staircase and rushed to it like a madman.

* * *

(Floral Field 4F)

"Why Catal and I had to do the Mystery Dungeon thing again?" Vinia repeated, looking much more willing to answer after a couple of minutes of nothing but raw silence and us alternating battles. "Well, before we went into the Mystery Dungeon, Catal and I had a fight."

"That's it? Surely Pokemon have had fights in this class before." Glacia asked, her disbelief raw.

"It wasn't that kind of fight, Glacia. It was more of slugfest - no moves, no strategies, just Catal and I pounding into each other with our fists."

"You two did it with your fists," I repeated - that didn't sound right.

"We did it with our fists," Vinia confirmed.

"But… Catal is a Pawniard. He doesn't have fists. And your fists are tiny." Glacia noted.

"Well, it was something along those lines," Vinia admitted.

Something had been bugging me, though. "Okay, okay, I get how you guys got into trouble - but why were you two fighting like that? You two usually avoid each other like the plague - but you guys were fighting it out for some random reason?"

* * *

(Floral Field 5F)

"Well, I wasn't the one who _started_ the fight, okay. Kaori and Ivan started the fight because Catal was mocking everyone, and I was dragged into the crossfire. Eventually, it came down to me and Catal, and that's how Mr. Pix found us."

"Yeah, and you hit like a piece of paper."

All three of us jumped at the same time. Catal was leaning against one of the walls of the Mystery Dungeon, crossing his arms as he did so.

"Why haven't you gone on?" Glacia immediately demanded. "Neither of us want to see your ugly mug."

"Like I want to see your mug either. I just waited for you guys to show up so we won't have to do this _again_ since this was supposed to be a 'Teamwork' exercise and all."

Unfortunately, Catal's explanation made sense - well, partly. He was the who started this mess, so him acting like the better man is a _little_ strange. Plus, didn't he say that he would rather be Captured than stick with us?

We didn't have much choice, though. We marched through the Dungeon, intent on ignoring every single piece of Catal's existence. Every time we enemy encountered an enemy, Catal would swoop in and slash them to bits. They would fall to the ground, lifeless, and we would slowly move one.

The hedge maze we were in slowly widened to a large chamber, with a staircase in it. Catal jumped on the Staircase. The rest of us followed.

* * *

(Great Plains)

We arrived back at the entrance to Floral Field. Mr. Pix looked up once he heard footsteps, relieved. It seems like he was spending his time counting blades of grass and singing to himself.

"Oh, you finished?" Mr. Pix asked eagerly. We mutely nodded. Mr. Pix clapped his hands together again. "That's great - I knew you four were able to pull yourselves together if the situation demanded it." None of us bothered correcting him.

Mr. Pix gestured to Jeden City. "Come on - let's go."

After an hour of walking, we arrived at the Venture Base. Catal immediately hightailed it, while Mr. Pix left to go relax by himself. Now, just Vinia, Glacia, and I remained. Vinia and Glacia went to study since neither of them had anything to do at the moment.

I didn't join them, though. It wasn't time for curfew yet, and I wanted to explore Jeden City.

I spent a good amount of time walking through the town. Since I didn't have any money I couldn't buy anything, so when I passed a shop I simply looked at what they had in stock. Most of the shops I passed had a very medieval feel to it, with simple design and low-tech goods.

I passed many curious places in town, however.

* * *

One such place was called Electricals. Inside there were a number of strange gadgets. There were no price tags, like every other store, but there was nothing explaining what anything did, either. I examined some of the wares and was slightly impressed. One was a "perpetual motion machine", and while I didn't know what that meant, it sounded cool.

I headed to the back of the store. There were flashes of light in the backroom. I moved there to see who was making those lights.

Of course, I realized that it was a little rude to barge in the back, so I hung back and cleared my throat. I heard a series of crashes and bangs once I did so, and I began to feel curious - what were they working on?

A strange bug-creature flew into sight. It reminded me strongly of both a beetle and jumper cables. It was definitely a Bug-type, to be sure, but if it ran this store, it might be an Electric Type as well.

"Oh, hello. I don't get too many visitors around these parts - you must be new here." The pokemon's voice was ear-grating, but I politely nodded - Alice knocked manners into me.

"Yes - I'm a newcomer. I'm from the Venture Base - I've been a recruit for a couple of weeks." I explained.

The beetle pokemon looked pensive for a second, then smiled brightly at me. "Well, hello then. Would you like to look around the store?" A mad look entered his eyes. "I would like to show you all of the wonderful things I've created - no one comes around to see them."

"Uhh… sure"

So that was how I got roped into a tour of Kavol the Vikavolt's Store of Mechanical Wonders. It was actually quite interesting, with how many gadgets and gizmos Kavol had invented.

"... and look at this invention - I call it the Scope Lens. It allows you to pinpoint an enemy's biological weaknesses and hit those points for lots of damage!" A lot of Kavol's inventions were very battle-focused. We had already seen the Insomniscope which gave its user Insomnia and the IQ Booster, which, when plugged in, would increase the user's intelligence.

I knew that Glacia would be salivating at the thought of some of these inventions, but since I had no money, I knew I wouldn't be able to buy any of them.

"As for the last of my battling inventions, we have the Electrizer, a device that can make an Electabuzz evolve into an Electivire… I think." Kavol bashfully admitted.

"Why do you say, 'You think'?," I asked, confused.

"Well… the thing is, while they theoretically work, no one actually comes in here to test them out. I have to test some of the materials out for myself, and while that can work for some of my inventions, it can't work for all of them. I can't test the Electrizer without an Electabuzz, after all. And some of my inventions, like the Type Devices, need Pokemon of various types to work."

"Oh… well, that's troublesome." I remarked, feeling slightly out of my depth.

Kavol shook his head. "Well, no one ever said inventing was easy, after all. If you don't know if it actually works, you can't use it."

"What are some of your successes, though?" I had become somewhat curious.

"Well, I know that the Bug and Electric Devices work - I tested them on myself. The Insomniscope works as well - it successfully protected me from a Hypnosis, and rendered Sleep Powder ineffective. The Progress Device was a wash - I tried to make a Device that would allow you to return to a dungeon normally when you've been Captured, since Reviver Seeds are so rare, but it only lights up."

"TMs and HMs work, but I only have three usable ones so far, so I can't exactly market them to the mass public."

Kavol had told me about TMs and HMs. Supposedly, they were machines that would make learning new moves a snap - you would just transfer over some muscle memory.

"Say, Kavol?" I had a question pop-up in my mind. "Do the Venturers know about your stuff?"

Kavol nodded. "Yeah, they know."

"Then why haven't they told us about your inventions? Each one of them seems so powerful."

At my remark, Kavol seemed to glow with pride. Then he drooped downward with sadness. "Only a few know about my inventions. I sent them to Captain Falcon so that he would distribute them to all of the Venturers in the area, so that they would show the Venturers in other bases how good my inventions are. Captain Falcon sent them back to me, though, saying that they were dangerous and that I shouldn't be making any more of them."

Captain Falcon again, huh? He always manages to insert himself into everything. When we first met him he seemed nice, but everything I've heard about him so far is just plain old bad.

"That's awful." I could only say. He was my boss, so I couldn't exactly say anything bad about him - Glacia and I might get into trouble, after all.

"Yes, and now I have a surplus of goods lying around the store, with no one willing to buy any of them. It makes living rather hard too, since I can't make any money of my own."

"Maybe I would be able to buy from you once I can afford it." I offered. Some of these products look rather useful, and I wouldn't mind parting with some of my cash if it meant that I was able to get some of these items.

Kavol chuckled. "Oh, just take something. You'd be doing me a favor by doing so - It'll clean up some room I can use for other inventions."

I was floored. "Are you… sure?," I asked, trying not to push my luck at being too eager.

Kavol smiled. "As long as you promise to come and visit every now and again and bring some Pokemon as well, I wouldn't mind giving you one of my inventions."

I wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth any more than I already had. "Well, what should I take?"

At that, Kavol began to fly around the room, looking at his various inventions and tittering to himself. "No usable… pointless… incompatible with biology…"

He eventually returned to me and sighed. "A lot of my inventions are those you can't use. I have three TMs that I've tested - X-Scissor, Energy Ball, and Poison Jab - yet I don't know if you are biologically capable of using those moves. The Lenses, like the Scope Lens and Insomniscope, are pointless because they'll just slip off of your body. You wouldn't be able to use the Magmarizer or Electrizer either."

"Honestly, it boils down to whether you want the IQ Booster, which can make you temporarily smarter, or the Link Box, which allows you to use multiple moves at the same time."

… okay, okay, let's think. Smarter at points or more moves?

"How much would each of them cost, if I were to buy them with money?" I ask, trying to get more information. I don't know why I asked that question, but it seemed fairly relevant.

"Let's see now… the IQ Booster would sell for a little over 500 Poke" Kavol said, referencing the unit of currency everyone used. "Development was tough, so I'd like to get my money back for it. The Link Box, though, would sell for much, much higher, at 9000 Poke - its development took seven years, and I nearly tore my head off every night."

… okay, given from Vinia told me about how food was priced, a regular meal would cost around 25 Poke. The IQ Booster would cost me about 20 meals (if I was paying for myself). The Link Box, though, would cost me 18 times more, at… 360 meals.

Yep - just by price value, I already know which one is more valuable. Does that make it worth it, though?

Well, Glacia and I will always be able to pool our money together once we get a way to get money, so let's go with the most expensive one first, then.

"I'll take the Link Box, then." Let no one ever say I was bad with money.

"Good eye, there. Luckily I managed to replicate it, so it won't be much trouble giving it to you."

Kavol went into the back and picked up a strange blue box. He then dumped it into my hands. "Well, here it is. Don't drop it, and have fun trying to use it."

It then occurred to me that he never told me he tested the Link Box.

Fun.

* * *

Another place I sort-of visited in town was Kecleon's General store. I had passed by it almost by accident - and by accident, I mean on purpose. After all, what was I supposed to think when there was a giant crowd around one of the stores. Blending into the crowd while holding on tight to my Link Box, I asked what was with the crowd.

Of course, I did attract some strange stares, and only then I remembered the laws that made it unfavorable for Ghosts.

"Ghosts like you aren't allowed to buy anything here." I was unceremoniously shoved out of the crowd by a Grumpig and landed on my back. "Leave - Kecleon's General Store don't serve your kind."

A spike of rage entered me, and I stood up, ready to give this guy a piece of my mind. Then I held myself back, because _what_ was I thinking? I can't go around picking fights!

With a little bit of effort, I managed to ignore the crowd and left to look for better stores.

Also - I should probably learn the laws of Jeden City, so I don't get blindsided by them in the future.

* * *

The last place I visited that day was Kangaskhan's Storage. As I was walking across the street to return to the Base, because I thought I had seen everything interesting about Jeden City, I came across a strange tent. Intrigued, I entered.

Inside was a large Pokemon that reminded me heavily of a kangaroo. Casting about in my memory for the Pokemon's species ("Memorize this by tomorrow, Tom. Don't worry - it's a lot easier than it looks like." Alice then proceeded to throw an encyclopedia at me), I recognized it as a Kangaskhan - or was it a Marowak?

"Hello, welcome to… Kangaskhan's…" Kangaskhan trailed off. At this point, I was starting to feel a little hurt. Other than from Kavol, I had been getting rude looks and stares all day. It was starting to concern me just how much power Captain Falcon held over this city, if this near-universal distrust of Ghost Types is his doing.

"Uhh… am I not welcome here?" I asked. After I had been kicked out of Kecleon's General Store, I had gone to a couple of other stores as well. They had proceeded to kick me out as well. My patience was going to go out any time soon, but if they were going to kick me out I want them to do it earlier than later.

Kangaskhan shook her (they were a girl, judging from the voice) head. "No, no, you're welcome here. I was just… surprised. You don't see Ghost Types in Jeden City that often anymore. Falcon's proposed laws made it miserable for all of the Ghost Types. I'm surprised you actually managed to get in."

Falcon - that must be what non-Venturers call Captain Falcon. I was beginning to see a pattern here, as well.

"Falcon… he made all of these laws because he hates Ghost Types, right?"

Kangaskhan shrugged, her eyes going cloudy. "Well, he used to not mind at all. Then something happened to him once he earned power, and Ghost Types became his mortal enemy."

"Earned power?" That was a strange way of saying he came to power.

Kangaskhan nodded. "Yeah, he earned power. You can only become Captain of a Venture Base by permission of the Venture Union, and his exploits, as a solo Explorer, caused him to gain widespread recognition. The Union recognized that in Falcon and placed him as Captain.

"And for the first couple of years, he was a great leader. He only came in when he needed to, and he made the decisions that would make everyone, while not necessarily happy or satisfied, accept it. He was the icon of Jeden City, and his fanbase grew to monstrous proportions."

Kangaskhan sighed, regret forming in her eyes. "I knew him when he was a recruit just like yourself. He was bright, bold, brave, intelligent…" A mist began to form over Kangaskhan's eyes. "... cute …" She then seemed to remember I was there and blushed. "Oops. Anyway, he was loved and respected by all."

The regret entered her eyes again, clouding them up. "Then, one day, he changed. All of his previous warmth was gone, only to be replaced with a pale mockery. I could recognize the difference immediately. The Pokemon I once… anyway, what brings you here?" Kangaskhan finally addressed.

"Oh! Uh, what do you do here, Kangaskhan?"

Kangaskhan raised an eyebrow. "Did you read the sign?"

"Yes?"

"What do you think this place is meant to do?"

"... store things?"

Kangaskhan patronizingly smiled. "Looks like you didn't need my help after all, then."

"Okay, but what does that actually mean? What do you store?"

Kangaskhan waved her hands around. "I store just about anything, as long as you can bring it here with you." She took a note of my Link Box. "Like that - the machine… thing. I'll store it for you for a small fee. Only you will have access to it, too."

I thought about that for a minute. Kangaskhan would take my things and store them away if I wished, only to bring them out once I asked for them…

A thought then crossed my mind. "Kangaskhan, how do you tell the difference between a Transformed Pokemon and a Real Pokemon?"

Kangaskhan looked confused. "Transformed?"

"Yeah, like a Ditto transformation, or an evolution." I elaborated.

Kangaskhan looked curious. "Well, it would be a sight to see if a Ditto ever became a thief. They're cheery do-gooders - unless it's in self-defense, they would never hurt a fly." I decided not to tell her about Henka. "But if we were to talk about a Zorua or Zoroark transformation, well, I would run Fighting Type energy along them to check if the illusion dissipates. I would have to suspect something first, of course."

"And for evolution?"

"I would probably recognize them by their personality - it's quite necessary to know who you're going to store objects for, after all." Kangaskhan smiled. "Either way, do you want to store the machine thing you have there?"

I didn't really trust Kangaskhan's method of security, so I declined. "No thanks - I'll protect it myself," I told her, trying to be as polite as possible.

Kangaskhan chuckled. "Well, don't be a stranger in the future… what's your name?" It occurred to me that I never told her my name, nor did I tell Kavol.

"Tom."

Kangaskhan nodded. "Don't be a stranger, Tom"

* * *

It took ten minutes or so, but I managed to get back to the Venture Base before the curfew was up. Since I had eaten recently, I didn't need to eat dinner today, so I was pretty good in regard to that. I got to the doors just before they locked up for the night and got in.

Well, now it's time to meet Alice again.

I go to the training Arena to train with Alice, as per usual. I get to the darkened arena and sit idly by, Link Box in hand.

After ten minutes of waiting, Alice shows up (like usual). She phases through the wall and appears in front of me. "Hey, Tom, how are you doing today?"

"I'm doing great today, thanks," I answer succinctly. "I went to Floral Field with Glacia, Vinia, and Catal."

Alice nodded. "Alright - how did you do?"

I regale her with the fights we had in Floral Field. She listened intently, stopping every so often to ask a question like "Why did you do this" or "Why that?".

Eventually, when I finished telling her about the various battle I got into in the Mystery Dungeon, she stood still, pensive, and then began to speak. "Alright, Tim - I mean, Tom" Again with the Tim. For the past couple of weeks, she's been calling me Tim repeatedly. It's a bit annoying, but I manage. "Okay, forget it, do you mind if I just call you Tim?

"Sure, go for it." I was tired of her constantly pretending she wasn't saying Tim.

"Good. Anyway, Tim, why were you so much better this time around?"

"... uh… I used strategy?"

"RIGHT! You used Strategy! You boxed in the Budew and you backed the Bounsweet into a corner! Instead of just randomly running and attacking, you actually used your brains!" She then began to mutter to herself. "I wished _some_ idiots would use their brains."

"What?"

"Oh, it's nothing, Tim. Anyway, instead of just running around and hoping for the best with your attacks you actually managed to do some consistent damage, and that's the _whole point_ of a battle."

Well, now I was blushing (or scrunching, as Alice called it - instead of blood rushing to our face when we got nervous, our wax folded in on itself). Alice's praise was rare but wonderful. Oh sure, she's always nice, but compliments are hard to come by since she's so hard to impress.

"Well, thanks." I gripped the Link Box tightly. "I tried my best."

Alice was about to say something and then stopped, a little confused. "Hey, Tim, what is that you have in your hands?"

"Oh, this?" I showed her the Link Box. "This is a Link Box. I got it from Electricals - Kavol was nice enough to give it to me for free, since I was the only one to come to his store in a long time and was the only one actually interested in what he was selling."

Alice's burning eyes widened. "A Link Box? I've never heard of one of those before - what does it do?"

I strained my memory to remember what Kavol had told me. "It allows you to use two moves at the same time… I think."

Alice gasped. "Wait, what?" She fixed her searing gaze on the Link Box. "How does it work?"

"I don't know," I truthfully told her. "All I know is that it costs 9000 Poke, making it the most valuable thing in the store."

Alice fixed me with a strange gaze. "You know, he could have lied to you about its value, inflating it. Heck, he could have lied to you if it even works or not."

I felt a burning feeling within me. "Kavol wouldn't do that! He's a nice guy!"

Alice challenged me with a stare. "Then why don't you try it out?"

"I will!". With that, I opened the box. Inside were a bunch of disks. I picked them up and laid them on the floor.

"Well, what are going to do now, huh?" Alice seemed annoyed that I accepted her challenge. "It's just a bunch of disks - what will you do?"

"I'm going to… I'm going to… " I hadn't really thought of what I was going to do. "I'm going to use one of my moves on it!"

Ignoring Alice's cries, I used Smog on one of the disks. I have no idea _why_ , but it just seemed like the best idea at the time (for some reason).

Instead of the disks breaking, like I expected, the disks absorbed the noxious gas I spewed out. It then turned purple.

All of a sudden I forgot how to use Smog. I tried to use it as much as I could, but the information simply left my brain.

"Tim! What happened?" Alice sounded beyond worried.

"I… I forget Smog!" I shouted at her.

"What?" Alice was shell-shocked. "What do you mean, 'you forgot Smog'?"

"I can't remember how to use it anymore - it's left my brain!" I explain to her, panicking slightly.

Alice turned her hate-filled gaze onto the Link Box, which had lit up. "What is this machine?", she shouted, hitting it.

The Link Box created a green sphere around itself, and Alice cursed. I recognized the move - it was Protect. Jenga used it once in a battle I spectated - although it was apparently an 'Egg Move'.

"Protect, huh." Once the Protect shield had faded away, she went into the boundary of the Protect shield and hit it again. A much smaller shield appeared, and Alice cursed again.

Alice turned to me. "Alright Tom, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to hit it from far away, and when the Protect shield appears, you're going to hit it from up-close."

I nodded, and Alice went far away. I, meanwhile, headed close to the Link Box. Alice fired an explosive Flame Burst at the Box, and a big Protect shield appeared, blocking the Link Box from the explosion. I was inside the sphere, so I hit the box with an Astonish.

A smaller shield appeared, concentric to the larger shield. Alice cursed one last time.

Once the two Shields disappeared, Alice walked over to me. "Well, this thing is safe from damage."

I picked up the purple disk that had absorbed the Smog I created. "What am I supposed to do with this?"

Alice gave me a funny look. "What do you mean?"

"Well, I assume Kavol meant for me to use the Move on the disk - that's why it's like this."

Alice gave me a deadpan stare. "He could have set you up, you know. Lock away one of your moves permanently in a disk like a Disable."

I ignored Alice and started twisting and turning the Purple Disk around. This went on for ten exasperating minutes, and in the end, I wasn't able to figure it out. I was about to put it down when a part of the disk brushed by my candle-forehead (try understanding that).

A small static discharge occurred, and I dropped the disk to the floor, leaving it clattering. A strange headache entered my head, and I slowly backed away from the disk, sliding away as fast as I could.

Alice was calling to me. "Tim? TIM?", but I could only tangentially hear her. I was… remembering something.

Suddenly, I remembered how to burn my wax to create some of the initial conditions for Smog.

"I… think I'm remembering a part of Smog, Alice," I told her, disbelieving what I was saying. I chanced a look at the disk that held Smog in it. A there was a small clear circle on the disk that used to be purple.

"Tom, don't touch that _anymore_ ," Alice fearfully called out to me, but I wasn't listening. I went to the disk, and under Alice's objections, pressed the disk to my forehead.

Suddenly I felt dizzy as information flew into my head. All of the memories of creating Smog… all of the experience…

When I came back to my senses, I faced Alice. "Alice, I completely remember Smog," I told her. The disk, which was previously purple, was now completely clear again.

"Tim. When I tell you _not_ to do something, you _don't_ do it." Alice's voice held rage inside it. "I'm glad that you figured out how to recover your moves. Now, get away from the box before you forget something else, and I'll handle Kavol."

I, however, touched the disks. They felt cool to the touch. Trusting my instincts, I smashed two of them together. They collapsed into one disk. Incredibly, another disk appeared in the Link Box.

I smiled.

"Alice, I've figured out how to use the Link Box."

Alice's anger was beginning to show. "Tom, I keep on telling you to get away from that, and you keep on disobeying me."

I moved over to Alice. "But you were wrong, Alice - this thing works!"

Alice regarded me with a cold eye. "Oh? Then tell me, how _does_ this machine work?" I could tell I was getting on her bad side, but at this point, it wasn't an issue.

I explained it to her, excited at my discovery. "These disks… they eat the knowledge we have of our Pokemon moves. We hit it with a Move, and it'll absorb both the knowledge we have of the move and the move itself."

Alice nodded. "Yes, we figured that out already."

I continued. "By pressing it to our foreheads - presumably, where we think - we can relearn the move."

Alice stared at me. "And this is good, how?"

I pointed to the other disks. "Because we have more than one disk, and they can collapse into each other. I bet that when they collapse and reapply it, you can use more than one move at a time."

Alice looked much more intrigued."... alright. I'll try it out, then. I'll use some of my weaker moves on it, moves that I don't use as much anymore."

I nodded, eager to get on with the experimentation. "Let's do it!"

So I got out two of the disks. As I was grabbing them, I dared to ask her something. "Alice, what moves will you use on them?"

Alice answered me shortly, stretching as she did so. "Smog and Ember. We know that Smog will work, and I don't use it that often. As for Ember, it's one of the weakest Fire moves and the easiest to learn, so if something goes wrong, I won't be held back too much."

I gave Alice the first disk. She cocked her head back, then began spewing torrents of noxious purple gas into the disk. The disk turned the same light purple it had for me. She handed me the disk.

"Wow… this feels weird… I know how to do it, but I just can't remember doing it anymore," she confessed to me. "In all honesty, this could be used as a defensive tool, if used right."

"What do you mean?" I asked her, confused, as I handed her the other disk.

"If you held a disk in front of an enemy attack, they would forget how to use the attack. You could neutralize a lot of powerful moves with this, permanently. And afterward, you could learn to use the move yourself." She explained to me as she fired an Ember at the disk.

Once she fired an Ember at the disk, the disk sucked up the aforementioned Ember. The disk then proceeded to turn a brilliant red.

Alice handed me the disk. I took both disks in my hand and collapsed them together. The resulting disk was one-half purple and one-half red. I handed back the fused disk to Alice. Alice took a deep breath, then applied it to her forehead.

A much larger spark of electricity formed, and Alice fell to the ground. I moved up to her and began to audibly worry about her health.

"I'm… I… wow." Alice got up and proceeded to shake herself a little bit. "Let me try it out." She then proceeded to take a big breath, before using the moves.

A huge torrent of mauve gas started spiraling out of Alice's mouth. I moved away from it, just in case the gas was dangerous.

And boy was it dangerous. As soon as it touched anything, be it the floor or the walls, it caught that thing on fire. Luckily, the fire didn't spread, and the Venture Base didn't have to be evacuated.

Curious, I approached one of the fires. Looking through the flames, I saw a bubbling fluid. With a start, I realized that the poison in Smog became flammable and reacted with the flames, creating a sustainable fire.

Alice looked at the destruction she caused. "W-wow…" She then adopted a feral grin. "Well, Tim? What should I name this cool new move of mine?"

I was silent for a time, trying to think of something that would describe the level of destruction this thing could create. Suddenly, a term came to mind that fit this move perfectly.

"Napalm. This move is called Napalm."

Alice smiled. "Alright, Tim, you've convinced me. This Link Box is _worth it_." She then adopted a pensive grin. "I wonder if I can get one of my own."

I shook my head. "This thing costs 9000 Poke, Alice. Can you afford it?"

Alice blanched. "Uhh… nevermind, then. Let me keep it, since you don't have a private space for yourself." She then shook her head. "So, you got this for free?"

I nodded. "Yeah - he was glad someone actually stuck around and listened to his tour of Electricals."

Alice then nodded. "Well, we're going to have to visit Electricals sometime, then. What else did he invent, by the way."

I cast around in my memory. "A pair of glasses that can keep you from sleeping and forms of Hypnosis. A lens that allows you to find an enemy's weak points. A bunch of disks that can teach you pokemon moves. Oh, and a box that can make you smarter."

Alice looked dumbfounded.

"Uh… Alice?"

Alice shook her head. "You're not joking, are you?"

I looked at her, perplexed. "No? Why would I?"

Alice grinned again. "We're going to visit Electricals very, very soon, Tim."

* * *

(Merla)

I was born inside a frozen egg.

Let me rephrase that

I, from the time of my birth, have been able to remember much more than your average Pokemon. I'm… different, I suppose.

From the inside of my egg, I was blissfully unaware of everything but my own existence. I wasn't content or peaceful or anything, but nothing really bothered me.

Then a strange presence entered the egg. I had briefly wondered what it was, and why it had come, before being consumed by it.

After that, everything was painful. My senses were awash with a freezing tingling, that made everything about me… different. The weird fluid I floated around in felt uncomfortably cold and the first movement I ever did was to shiver.

Then I was released from my ice prison and released into the comparatively warmer world outside.

I distinctly remember shrieks of fright and pain when I first woke up. The strange presence, a weird Miasma, flowed out of my body, and wrapped itself around the bodies of who I assumed were my parents.

I cried out in worry, but then froze in fright. The shrieks soon stopped, with everything else resembling my parents.

Looking back on it now, the only reason I had survived the first few years of my life was due to the Miasma. Now knowing of society's attitude toward Inverted Pokemon like me, I realize the reason my parents didn't drown me upon birth was that the Miasma took their minds for its own.

My parents, who had died when I was seven, were the worst possible caretakers for me. They refused to teach me anything and only bothered to feed me and remove my excrement from their lives.

My brother, who now lives in the Venture Base, was perpetually afraid of me and would constantly beg my parents to abandon me or kill me, whichever came first.

I don't remember him very fondly.

The Miasma would come and comfort me, promising to exact hurt and pain on them when we were strong enough. I didn't listen, however - I knew that the Miasma made them this way. My memory serves me well.

At that point, the Miasma became my enemy - I was smarter than it was, and I wouldn't bow down to something so malicious.

So went the first 10 years of my life. I was smart enough to take care of myself, by simply observing those around me, and I soon learned how to research. In the dead of night, I would leave for the library of Wahed Town.

It was dull and monotonous, yet my life goal was to rid myself of this Miasma, so I struggled on. I had made no progress, however, and soon enough I was forced to reckon with myself what I was going to do with my life.

My burning desire to expel the Miasma had not abated, but I knew that researching like this wasn't going to cut it. I needed more information.

I needed to be able to travel.

I needed to learn how to Venture.

It was hard, at first, figuring out what Base would offer me a spot. I knew I would pass any test they could give me with ease - what I needed, though, was their goodwill.

Redirecting my attention to that, I found one Base. The Venture Base in Jeden City, run by Captain Falcon, would be my best shot. Captain Falcon was genial but fierce. He knew how to militarise, and would put up with an Inverted Pokemon if it meant getting a soldier.

In addition, while it was well known he despised Ghost Types, he still hired one in a Lampent. Judging from descriptions, I knew that he was more intolerant of Ghosts than he was of Inverted Pokemon, so he wouldn't dismiss me purely because I was Inverted.

A few months later, I was in. Captain Falcon gave me room and board but made sure I knew how to behave. I promised, but I knew that the Miasma, now done with its facade, would be continuously screaming for their blood.

Of course, the Miasma frightened nearly everyone. Its demonic aura instinctively inspired terror within everyone, and I soon became a pariah. Nothing new…

… except for Catal. A couple of days into the class, he came up to me and started to chat. I was floored - Conversation was something I never needed to bother myself with. He made me feel like what a child like me should feel like - warm and comforted. Soon enough, though, I found myself opening up to him, and the Miasma receded for the first time in my life. It wasn't gone, for sure. It wasn't doing anything, though.

I found myself more and more attached to Catal. His presence made the Miasma recede, and healed my mind, which I didn't even know was damaged. Now that I think about it, the Miasma naturally would attempt to damage my mind.

Soon, I found myself willing to do anything to please him - it was the least I could do, after all. Catal took it in stride and began to order me around. For a while, this was the status quo, and I was content.

But then, the Miasma started coming back. Whatever Catal was doing was becoming undone, and my mind began to slowly fracture itself again. Catal continued to order me around, becoming ruder and ruder once he realized I was trapped with him. A pit of disgust appeared within me as I beheld my new torturer.

I despaired for the moment that I would return to my previous state, and decided to find consolation within myself that I had at least half a year of relative peace.

Then she appeared.

Glacia. She was, to me, uninteresting at first. Just a classmate that would blend into the others eventually as I descended into madness once more.

I went to sleep that night fitfully.

Then I had a strange dream. It involved prayers, using my flames as rockets (which I would have to try at some point, the physics behind it was fascinating), and destroying a core of darkness within myself.

I woke up, with a strange weight taken off my back. Above me a Pokemon stood, inquiring for my health.

I was about to tell them off, when I saw who it was. Glacia. Immediately my heart went out for her, stronger than it came out for my former love for Catal. I, somehow, knew that she had made the Miasma leave me forever and that she would never leave me.

I knew that I owed my life and beyond to her, because she gave it back to me tenfold. I knew that she was my new purpose, my original having been fulfilled.

Glacia. My lady.


	9. 9 - A Tournamental Test

(Glacia - Venture Base - Two Weeks Later)

"Final exams are tomorrow!"

That was written on Ms. Gaw's blackboard. Everyone around us whispered nervously - _Were they prepared for this? Did they need more time? How were they going to perform?_ Tom began to wring his wax, looking worried beyond measure.

"Uh… Glacia… I don't know if I'm ready." Tom confessed to me as Ms. Gaw began her apparently final lesson, which was actually a review once I listened closely.

I waved him off. "Don't worry, Tom - you'll do fine. You've been studying, right? You know all of the types, their strengths, their weaknesses, battle tactics, etc. You've been paying attention in class as well, so as long as you keep your head, you'll be fine."

Tom still looked unsure, with tiny globules of sweat-like wax running down his body. Poor guy thinks he'll fail. Ridiculous - he was tutored by me every other day, so of course, he'll pass.

Vinia, who was trying to listen to the review in the seat behind mine, tapped the back of my head. She seemed to be rather annoyed, gesturing to Ms. Gaw as if to remind us to pay attention.

I didn't particularly need to review, as I learned everything I needed to within the first week and shot to the top of class rankings. I wasn't going to fail. I never did, after all, with academics.

Still, to pacify Vinia, I decided to pay attention.

"... tomorrow, you'll be taking two tests with me. One of the tests, which will last thirty minutes, will be multiple choice. You will have to answer questions based on the lectures, so make sure you study extra hard tonight.

"The other test, meanwhile, will be open-answer and will be taken individually. Each of you will take turns being asked questions from proctors. It'll test your ability to think on the spot, an ability many Venturers need. After all, we need more than Pokemon able to spit out facts - we have books for that."

A Hippopotas raised their leg. "Ms. Gaw?"

"Yes, Stop?"

Stop - what a dreadful name - took a deep breath and continued. "Will we take a test with Mr. Pix as well?"

Ms. Gaw nodded. "Yes, you'll definitely have to take a practical exam. I don't know the details, though. You'll have to ask him later today."

With that, the review continued. We covered various topics, like edibles in the Dungeons, ways to locate the Staircase faster, Twistings, and how to ration your food in a Dungeon. Ms. Gaw crammed in as much reviewing as she could, covering the last year to the best of her abilities.

Soon enough, though, it was time for lunch. A few of the students bade goodbye to Ms. Gaw - this would most likely be the last time the relationship between us and her would be student and teacher, as she wouldn't be able to teach us anything in an official capacity anymore.

I decided that she wasn't worth my goodbye and headed off to lunch with the rest of the Pariahs - what we were called, apparently.

After a nice meaty lunch later, we headed to Mr. Pix's room. When we arrived Mr. Pix began to explain to us what our test was going to be as well.

"You guys have to take two tests with me as well." He began. "I'll be testing your combat abilities as well as how well you traverse a Mystery Dungeon."

"The day after tomorrow, when your theoretical exams are done, you guys will have to take a practical exam with me. Each of you will participate in a class-wide tournament. Your placement there won't dictate whether you pass or fail, but it will be taken into account.

"That'll be the first test. The second test will be you guys successfully going through a simple Mystery Dungeon."

Upon Mr. Pix saying this, there was pandemonium. Everyone began to raise objections, and I began to wonder if they still hadn't realized what they signed up for, as Venturers. You know, Pokemon whose _job_ it is to go into Mystery Dungeons?

Mr. Pix, through some cajoling, managed to quiet everyone down. "Yes, kids - I'll have to take you through a Mystery Dungeon. It's what you guys are getting a license for, so you're going to have to go through one eventually - and you'll have to do it by yourself, too."

Upon this information, Lyli the Starly fainted. She was reliant on Stop and that Tynamo to take her through her life, so having to go through a Mystery Dungeon by herself would probably be next to impossible for her. I snorted - she was of weak will, and she wouldn't last a day as a Venturer. She was probably going to fail, mark my words.

We spent some time waking Lyli up and sending her to Ms. Kiss with Vinia before Mr. Pix went on with his explanation. "We have a couple of Mystery Dungeons in the vicinity of Jeden City - Floral Field, Abandoned Tower, Toxic Swamp, and Castle Rock, which was made only a month ago.

Castle Rock, that was the Dungeon that was created when I first met Tom and Team Link. Was that only a month ago?

"You guys will be separated into eight groups of three and will have to go through each Dungeon in those groups of three. Think of our journey into Floral Field a month ago, only without me there. You will be allowed everything but Escape Orbs and Pure Seeds, so plan well. For now, we'll be practicing our moves for one final day, so make sure to give it your all!"

* * *

(The Next Day)

The class lined up outside of Ms. Gaw's classroom. The din was loud as we waited for Ms. Gaw to work the final preparations for the written test, as well as address any students whose biology would make it difficult for them to take the test.

Already I could tell that some of them were going to fail. They were sweating bullets and trying to recite facts to themselves. Just from listening to what they thought were the answers to the questions was repulsive - how can someone not know that much about what they had spent the majority of the past year learning?

Seriously - they thought that Pure Seeds could be used to clear someone of Status Effects! It actually just took them to the Staircase of the floor (which was probably why they were banned in the test). If they got something like that wrong, I shudder to think how they'll fare when faced with some of the harder questions, like the signs a Mystery Dungeon is about to Capture you.

Tom was also reciting facts to himself, although he got the majority of them right. But of course he did - I made sure of it. Still, I could tell that he was anxious, so I tapped him to get his attention and told him to take a couple of deep breaths to calm down. A few minutes later, he was back to his calm self.

As for the other Pariahs… Vinia was as confident as I was, Shift and Naetle were, like Tom, reciting facts to themselves, and Merla was sitting next to me, gazing around like I was. She tended to look at whatever I was looking at, which I was still trying to figure out.

The door slowly opened, and everyone's voices faded away, with some trembling. Ms. Gaw stepped out, her face inscrutable.

"Well, kids, it's time. Come on in."

She led the way inside. The class slowly trickled in, and we sat in our usual seats. Of course, the seats were much farther apart than they were usually, so the class ended up separated.

Once we got ourselves situated, Ms. Gaw cleared her throat, and a watery smile appeared on her face.

"This is your moment, class. Everything you learned this year will come into play now. Answer with confidence, because you worked hard to get here. You have three hours to answer 100 questions." As she spoke, a couple of Venturers I had seen around the base handed out the papers.

I felt a tap on my shoulder and saw Peng winking at me as she passed me a few sheets of paper. She then went over to Tom and gave some to him as well.

"You will start in 3… "

The class took a collective breath and gripped the pencils in whatever manner they could.

"2… "

Tom set a look of determination on his face as he took the pencil, clearly resolving himself.

"1…"

I took my pencil and smiled.

This is my territory.

"Now."

With that, papers were flipped over as the class began to frantically write. I flipped over and began to write.

* * *

(Two and a Half Hours Later)

With one final stroke, I carefully marked the final answer and stared at my sheet. Now was a good time as any to check my answers.

 **1.) Which has the potential to become a Mystery Dungeon?**

 **a) An abandoned castle**

 **b) A mountain range**

 **c) A grassy field**

 **d) A dense forest**

 **e) All of the above**

The answer, of course, was e), since literally anything can undergo a Twisting to become a Mystery Dungeon. It was only a matter of time until something became a Mystery Dungeon.

 **2.) What is it called when an Area becomes a Mystery Dungeon?**

 **a) A Creating**

 **b) A Collapsing**

 **c) A Twisting**

 **d) A Capturing**

 **e) None of the above**

This one was also easy - a Twisting.

The questions went on like that for a long time, and I dutifully checked the answers. It took a bit of time, but I made sure all of the answers were correct.

Finally, I reached question 100.

 **100.) Which type does the Wonder Gummi benefit the most?**

 **a) Electric**

 **b) Psychic**

 **c) Fairy**

 **d) None of the above**

I made sure the right answer was circled - d), none of the above - then flipped my paper over, making sure my name was on it. I took a deep sigh of relief, and then a smile ripped itself across my face.

Oh, it was so long since I took an academic test like that! It was surprisingly nostalgic - whenever I was tutored by a prestigious Alakazam or Gardevoir, I would always have to take a written test afterward. I would always look at the results afterward and laugh about the results with Sharon.

Sharon…

The smile disappeared from my face. I had been avoiding thinking about my original time for the past month - the fact that I had been kidnapped from my time was still a little hard to wrap my head around.

I had done a little bit of research into temporal displacement in the Venturing library. Of course, when Merla (who was hovering over me like usual) quietly asked what I was doing, I explained to her my origin and my current predicament. After five seconds of thought, Merla proclaimed to me that, upon her life, she would help me find a way back home. She then threw herself into research next to me.

I have to say, she was already more reliable than Tom on that part, as he seems to have completely forgotten about the promise he made to me.

Through a little bit of digging with Merla, I found out that time travel was a rare phenomenon. There have only been a few Pokemon, in legend, to have time traveled.

One notable legend was the one of the Temporal Grovyle and the Lustrous Celebi. Supposedly, there was a time where there was no Time, and the world froze. Only the Pokemon, by a miracle of Arceus, were able to stay in motion.

Two Pokemon, a Grovyle and a Celebi, despised such a cruel world and opened a door to the past, where they prevented the Temporal Apocalypse from occurring. They returned to a paradise and lived the rest of their lives in happiness, enjoying the fruits of their arduous labor in the past.

I had listened to this story millennia ago, in _The Tales of Eonia_. Finding that some of these legends still existed so far into the future brought a smile to my face.

It also gave me a clue. Grovyle were fairly common Pokemon - you could find them in any jungle. Celebi, though…

It sounded like a legendary - and a legendary might have the ability to bring me back in time.

Though, I was unable to find any leads on Celebi or any other legendary Pokemon for that matter. There was a reason they were called legendary, after all, instead of godly.

Either way, I would have to continue my research once I passed the Venturing Course and became a fully-fledged Venturer. Speaking of passing the course…

Not everybody was done yet. Vinia, like me, had already finished, and she was busying herself by manipulating her pencil with psychic energies. Just from that, I knew she was bored. Catal had also finished and was napping. Merla had finished as well - in fact, it seemed she had finished before me.

I had to do better, then. It wouldn't stand for someone to be smarter than me, after all.

Tom looked to be on the last page of the test, a fervor in his eyes. He looked much more confident now then he had at the beginning of the test. Naetle was also finishing up, although he seemed a lot less confident in his answers. Shift was always worried, so looking at his reactions wouldn't tell me that much.

I decided to follow Catal's lead for once and take a nice nap - I'll need the energy for the next test.

* * *

I appeared in a dark world. Everything was dark and unsettling, and I soon found myself shivering despite the fact that the dream world - for that was what it was, I'd been in Merla's dream world at night enough to tell when I was in someone's dreams - was lukewarm in temperature.

I always fell into a Pokemon's dream world when I slept. It took me a long time to realize, but visiting Merla every night in her dreams left me with no doubt that it was a coincidence. Falling into other dream worlds - Vinia's, for instance - was something I did occasionally as well. Vinia's dream world was that of a prison, for reasons I couldn't understand. I would always hear crying there, with desires to escape.

I knew, somehow, that the voice belonged to Vinia.

Interrogating Vinia about it later yielded no results. It seemed I had struck a nerve with that inquiry, for she refused to talk to me for hours afterward. I figured that I would have to gain her trust more before I went back in that direction.

Once or twice, I entered Kaori's and Ivan's dream worlds. It was dull, though - they had simple minds and were repetitive once you entered.

Either way, I knew I was in a dream world. The question is, whose dream world am I in now?

Who was asleep when I fell asleep?

… Catal.

I shivered more violently. I was starting to feel a little apprehensive about staying in here. I'm as strong as I usually am in the dream world - as strong as I am on the outside world. Catal, however, was stronger than I was even in the real world.

I don't fancy what will happen if I die in a dream world. Best case scenario, I get booted out. Worst case, I turn into a vegetable.

"... Glacia…" I freeze.

I slowly turn around, and out of the gloom comes a Bisharp. It looks strangely familiar, and I remember what had happened in the night I time-traveled away from my home.

Yeah… I'm not going to stick around.

I used a Quick Attack to run away as fast as I could. The Bisharp gave chase, but it wasn't fast enough to outspeed me. As I ran, I considered what I was going to do. I needed to escape - that was something that didn't need thinking about. The question was, how was I going to do it?

Usually, the mind booted me out on its own, so I just waited around for the dream to kick me out. That wasn't an option this time, however. I could tell the Bisharp - who may have been Catal's inner view of himself - was out for blood.

Luckily, I didn't need to worry. I soon found myself disappearing into motes of light, like I had with the day I purified Merla of the Miasma, and eagerly woke up.

* * *

"Time's up!" Ms. Gaw called out. A couple of the students cried - it seemed they were unable to perform well on the exam and had flunked.

"Hand in your papers now, please. Once you've handed them in, you can go to lunch," Ms. Gaw announced. "Afterward, we'll have the next portion of the exam."

After we Pariahs had turned in our papers, we headed to lunch together. Tom, Naetle, and Shift fretfully discussed the outcome of the test while Vinia, Merla, and I just watched with slight amusement. They really hadn't prepared well, hadn't they? Sucked to be them, then.

We made it to the cafeteria and loaded our plates with food. We began discussing the test with earnest. Judging from what they said were the answers to the questions, it seemed they had a fairly solid grasp of the material. Unless the cut-off point was really high, they would probably pass that portion of the exam.

Seeing Tom answering our verbal questions with ease brought a smile to my lips. It seemed he has finally learned the basic principles of being a Pokemon and can blend in rather easily. I remembered when he thought he had to _roll on his side_ to move.

Of course, thinking about back then reminded me of my temporal predicament. I decided that now was a good time to remind Tom about his promise to me - I plan to use his (meager) researching abilities to full use.

I tapped Tom on his back and waited for him to turn around. Once I held his attention, I reminded him of the promise he had made to me a month ago.

His eyes widening was rather comical, and as we ate he flailed around, trying to come up with excuses as to why he hadn't helped me with my predicament like he had promised to. His excuses, while slightly amusing, irritated me slightly, and I found myself slightly peeved that he was trying to excuse himself from his misdeed.

Of course, we attracted the attention of the three Pokemon who didn't know about the predicament - Naetle, Shift, and Vinia.

"What are you two talking about?" Vinia looked at us, confusion in her eyes. "What do you mean 'back to your own time'?"

So I was forced to explain my situation to the three. The reactions were… unique. Shift simply fainted - which I find a point of pride, as Merla herself wasn't able to make him faint. Naetle simply looked shocked, then began contemplating what I was saying. I could understand why, as I'm trying to understand it myself.

Vinia, however, was skeptical. "Let me get this straight. You were a princess from two thousand years ago -"

" _Am_ a princess, Vinia," I corrected her.

Vinia looked ticked off. "As I was saying, you _are_ a princess from two thousand years ago. Is that correct?"

I nodded.

"Then, one night, you woke up, headed downstairs, found a military coup going on, had yourself found out, were about to get Hypnotized into …?"

"I don't know what they were going to make me do, but probably nothing good," I explained. As I spoke, Merla bristled. It seemed she was still wildly protective of me and couldn't stand the thought of me being under hypnosis.

"Okay, whatever." Despite this dismissal, I saw a film of sweat develop over her skin. She seemed to be unnerved by what I said - but by what exactly? "You then were saved by a mysterious voice you think belonged to a legendary Pokemon, and were kicked through a weird blue hole to the present."

"Well, I still see it as the future, sort of."

"Then you found yourself in the middle of a grassy field and were kidnapped by a Ditto who was transformed as Dragonite."

"Right,"

"Then, once you managed to escape, you found yourself in a Mystery Dungeon. Once you escaped from the dungeon, Henka ran away and you headed back to this base to become a Venturer."

"That about sums it up."

"... Excuse me if I don't believe you."

While I myself became a little upset, Merla began to hiss at Vinia. I tried to calm her down, but she began to throw scathing words at Vinia. "Watch your tongue."

Vinia's skin grew even paler than it had previously, and I cursed. I had hoped that Merla was past her aggression.

"It's alright, Merla, don't worry." I tried to reassure her. Merla nodded but continued to stare angrily at Vinia. Vinia shrunk back.

The mood of the room was gone with Merla's words. The cafeteria was emptying out, so we left as quickly as possible to avoid being left behind. We had the practicals with Ms. Gaw now, so we should be getting ready as much as possible. We spent half a minute slapping Shift awake before heading to the classroom again.

We waited in the hallway for the test. From what the others were telling me, Ms. Gaw was giving us a random situation for us to solve in five minutes, to the best of our capabilities. Some of the questions we heard so far from the returning examinees were stuff like "What would you do if you were trapped between two Monster Houses?" and "What if the team steps on a Warp Trap and gets separated? How would you gather the team as quickly as possible".

I realized that these questions were the kind where you had to think hard about. It hadn't really occurred to me that we would be facing these types of situations, but then again, our first dungeon was like this as well. Kol gave us orders in the middle of a Monster House, so Venturers probably had to be able to do something like this.

My fellow students trickled through, and eventually, it came to the Pariahs. One by one, we entered the room for the examination. Vinia went first, clearly trying to avoid Merla as much as possible (Merla was still glaring at her full force. I told her to keep it down, and she marginally reduced her glare. That's something, I suppose.) Tom went in next, followed by Naetle and Shift.

It was down to me and Merla as to who was going to go first. Of course, Merla stepped forward before I could say anything. I guess she wanted to go first.

More time for me, then.

Five minutes later, Merla came back, her face expressionless as always. I decided that it was my turn, at last, and stepped into the classroom, the last of my classmates.

Ms. Gaw looked up to see who it was and smiled. "Hello, Glacia. It's nice to see you again." I nodded. "Well, do you want to get started with the examination.

I sat in the chair that was across from Ms. Gaw's. Ms. Gaw coughed a little bit, then started.

"You are walking through a Dungeon on a solo expedition, and you come across an enemy Geodude. You try to use one of your moves against it, but to your surprise, it doesn't work. You try another of your Moves, but it doesn't work either. The Geodude is five seconds away - what do you do?"

Can't use any of my moves?

"How many of my moves have I used recently."

"Not that many. You used a Shadow Ball on a Bronzor a minute earlier than the scenario, but other than that one fight you haven't battled."

Okay, so it isn't because of a loss in stamina.

"Did I step on any Traps earlier?"

Traps were one of the tools a Mystery Dungeon would use to weaken and debilitate a wayward Venturer. Traps could do many things, from poisoning to attracting nearby Pokemon to straight up physical damage.

One Trap, called the PP-Zero Trap, drained you of all your stamina, preventing you from using your Moves. This has reportedly doomed many Venturers, so Venturers are always suggested to bring a stamina restoring Max Elixir on their explorations.

Another Trap, the Seal Trap, used special powers to prevent you from using your moves. It was impossible to heal or restore directly - the only way to get rid of it was to get to another floor, which undid the seal.

"No, you didn't step on any Traps."

Well, there goes that idea.

Okay, no traps, and no battles, but still I'm unable to use any moves.

"Did I eat anything in the Dungeon so far?"

"No, you have yet to eat anything."

It's looking more and more unclear…

Let's start at the chronological beginning. I entered the Dungeon, went up a couple of floors (presumably), encountered a Bronzor and battled it before fighting the Geodude afterward.

Hm…

"What moves did the Bronzor use on me?"

"Extrasensory and Imprison."

… of course. Imprison stops you from using any moves from the range of two to five minutes. I battled the Bronzor a minute before the Geodude, so the Imprison was probably still in effect.

"What do I have in my bag?"

"A Totter Seed, a Blast Seed, and a couple of Silver Spikes, as well as a Max Elixir, some Apples, and a few Oran Berries"

Alright, my game plan is set.

"I throw the Totter Seed at the Geodude to confuse it before throwing a couple of Silver Spikes at it."

"Your attacks do a lot of damage to it, but it is ultimately able to shake it off and pursue attacking you."

"I eat the Blast Seed so I can create the explosion and hurt the Geodude as much as possible."

"With the Blast Seed, you manage to take out the Geodude. What do you do next?"

"I get on the move, keeping a sharp ear out for any enemies. I stall any fights, running away from any battles, until the Imprison ends and I can fight again. I proceed to the next floor and continue with the Dungeon."

"Thank you, Glacia." Ms. Gaw smiled. "Just between you and me, you performed admirably well. If you do well in the practicals, it would seem to me that you would be a promising rookie Venturer." Ms. Gaw smiled. "I'll admit, I had my misgivings. Milla was rather worried about you and Tom, thinking you two were dangers." She chuckled. "You two, other than causing some chaos on your first day, have performed admirably well."

She showed me out of the door. "I wouldn't mind seeing you two again, that for sure."

I nodded and then left.

She had left me with a lot to think about.

* * *

(The Next Day)

"Alright, kids! Time for the tournament!" There was a lot of cheering, mixed with nervous mumbling. Half of the class was ready to show their stuff - which included the Pariahs - while the other half were worried out of their heads- which included Tom and Shift.

"We're going to separate this into a single elimination tournament. In the preliminaries, there will be 8 matches, with 8 other Pokemon getting byes. This will leave us with a nice 16 Pokemon for the tournament!"

Let's see now… that means a third of the class will get to the tournament without a fight. Assuming the picks are random, two of the Pariahs will go to the tournament without a fight, as we comprise a fourth of a class of twenty-four (does that still mean we're Pariahs?)

"Since we're going to have the full tournament today, we're going to have to speed this up. Our good old Captain Falcon has provided us with some arena to fight on. We'll get all of the preliminaries over with at once - each of the Pokemon getting byes will be the referee for the preliminaries."

Mr. Pix pulled out a wrinkled sheet of paper. "The Pokemon who are getting byes are… Bamel…" He noted the bored looking Buizel who had been idly picking his nose (urgh… ) as Mr. Pix had been talking. Bamel, once his name was called, immediately stopped picking his nose when everyone's eyes were on him, looking rather mareepish.

"Kase…" The Spheal who had fought Tom earlier in the exhibition match we fought happily nodded, bouncing around.

"... Lyli… Stop… Rai…" There was a bunch of cheers from the three. Rai, Stop, and Lyli were good friends since they were little, apparently, and they were nearly inseparable as a result. It was a foregone conclusion that they would fight on the same Team if they graduate. Getting a free pass from the preliminaries was alright with them.

"Kaori…" The Baltoy I was friends with for a day happily smiled. Honestly, I sometimes wish I was still friends with her, but she and Ivan had a bad past with Merla, so I'm not going to try and rekindle the flames of friendship.

"Shift…" There was a sigh of relief from Shift who was a couple of spaces from me. He was constantly stressing out over this yesterday, as we talked after the exams yesterday. I assume he was relieved that he wouldn't have to fight an extra round.

"... and Vinia. You eight are getting byes, so once the preliminary brackets are called, choose a match to referee over."

"Yes, sir," came out the chorus of cries.

"Excellent! Now, let's choose the preliminary brackets!" Mr. Pix pulled out a bowl from behind himself and started to pick pairs of names from it. From some stroke of luck, none of the rest of the Pariahs were chosen to fight against each other, nor against Catal and his group.

Once everybody had gotten who they were fighting against - I was facing a female Goomy named Cora - we went outside the Base and saw the arenas Mr. Pix had set up for us. Eight arenas, similar to the one inside the Base, surrounded a circular arena.

Mr. Pix stepped into the grass circle. "All combatants, find an arena to begin your fight in."

Cora and I headed to one of the arenas off to the right of the circle. Bamel the Buizel decided to referee our fight, walking over to where Cora and I were facing each other.

Once everyone had gotten into their positions, Mr. Pix raised his hand. All of the class tensed and waited for the signal for the matches to start. A rush of adrenaline began to flow through me as I smiled. Battle was starting to grow on me, now that I was doing it constantly.

"Begin!"

I immediately sprang into action, charging a Shadow Ball while running full tilt at Cora. Cora responded by firing Bubbles at me to attack me, presumably also trying to slow me down as well. I dodged to the side and resumed my attack.

I neared her when she used her near-signature move, the barrier-creating Protect. While there were others in the class who could use the move, like Jenga, Cora was much more adept at using it. Protects were near effortless for her, and she incorporated it in her style well. In her previous battles, she used a combination of Protect and Absorb to drain her opponent's health while they futilely tried to route her Protect.

I cursed. I had been hoping to attack her before she managed to pull that off, but it looked like I was too late. Now, none of my attacks would work. There were some moves, like Feint, which could break through the Protect, but I didn't have any moves like that.

I veered away from Cora, as slamming into her barrier would do me no good at this point. Once I was a suitable distance away from Cora, I fired the Shadow Ball I had been charging at her. Cora pulled up another Protect, canceling her old one as a result.

Protect could, as long as the attack was weak enough, block any attack. It faltered against Moves that caused mass devastation, like the newly engineered Inferno Overdrive a Magmortar managed to create, but anything else splashed against it harmlessly.

The main drawback of Protect was that it consumed a lot of stamina, disappeared quickly, and was incredibly difficult to do in quick succession. Cora, unfortunately, managed to overcome this, making Protect a breeze. The only way the other classmates had been able to beat her was through moves like Earthquake of Magnitude, outspeeding her, or otherwise circumventing the Protect.

I would have to do the same.

I fired a Shadow Ball in the air, calculating the trajectory it would take quickly. I then dodged the extra Bubbles Cora had fired at me and used Quick Attack to head around Cora. Cora immediately twisted around and formed another Protect to stop my attack.

I flipped off her Protect and began to use Quick Attacks consecutively as I ran around her, forcing her to use Protect constantly to stop from taking any damage. Because I was attacking her from different angles, she had to create a new Protect for every attack I did and was unable to use an Absorb to regain her stamina.

I still wasn't doing any damage to her, as my Quick Attacks were nowhere near strong enough to penetrate the Protect. In a war of attrition, she would easily win. That wasn't the point, though.

As I had planned, she had completely forgotten about the Shadow Ball I had sent in the air earlier. A minute after I had fired it, it flew back down from the air, having been sent up a great vertical distance.

The Shadow Ball fell upon her as she blocked one of my attacks, exploding and making the Protect shield waver. Using all of the agility I could muster, I sidestepped the Protect and attack the distracted Cora directly.

From there it was child's play. I kept her from concentrating enough to generate another shield, and landed blow after blow on her. Soon, I drove Cora out of the ring, and Bamel called it.

Exhausted, I sat down for a rest. That… wasn't pleasant. Cora, while unable to innovate much, managed to use her Protect to its absolute greatest, causing me to expend a lot of energy to circumvent it. I sat down as Cora picked herself up.

"Good match," I offered. "You had me thinking hard."

Cora gave me a depreciating smile on her lavender face. "Yeah… it's about time I've figured out a new method to fight - too many Pokemon can get around my Protects. I've been relying on it too much so I might not pass. I won't get any farther in the tournament, at any rate."

She then gave me a slightly more sincere smile. "I wish you luck, Glacia."

I accepted it, then waited for the rest of the fights to finish. Luckily, our fight had gone on long enough that most of the other matches had already concluded. Other than Jenga and some Timburr whose name I can't remember off the top of my head, the matches had already finished. It looked like Tom was cheering me on while the rest of the Pariahs merely looked entertained by the battle (I'm pretty sure Merla would have cheered too, but I'm pretty she didn't know how to cheer).

With one final Poison Sting, Jenga finished off the Timburr. Stop called that match and signaled to Mr. Pix that the match was over.

Mr. Pix cheered. "The preliminaries are over! Come around and let's hear what the results were. Those that got byes, tell me who won your fights."

The Pokemon who got byes quickly ran to Mr. Pix and told him who won the preliminaries. Mr. Pix made some notes, edited a paper with brackets on it then called on our attention again.

"The tournament will go as follows. The first round is Naetle against Bamel. The second round is Ivan against Shift. The third round is Merla against Rai. The fourth round is Tom against Kaori. The fifth round is Ken against Vinia. The sixth round is Glacia against Stop. The seventh round is Jenga against Lyli. The eight round is Catal against Kase."

"Naetle, Bamel, you have ten minutes to prepare for the first match. Good luck."

* * *

We all surrounded one of the arenas. Mr. Pix was now going to be the referee, so we were going to be spectators for the fight. Naetle and Bamel stood in the arena. Naetle looked impassive, yet reticent. Bamel, for the first time I had ever seen, was looking worried.

I could definitely see why. Naetle was one of the top students of the class and had the type advantage to boot. Bamel had a lot going against him. A silent betting pool going around had odds of ten to one, so even his friends thought he was going to lose.

"First round: Naetle against Bamel. Begin!" With that, Mr. Pix began the match.

Bamel, surprisingly, was the first to fire off a move. Jumping in the air and twisting around, he fired a Sonic Boom at Naetle. Naetle dodged the best he could, only getting moderately clipped. Sonic Boom was completely unaffected by type resistance, so that could rack up damage on him pretty quickly.

Shaking off the small damage the Sonic Boom did to him, Naetle responded with a Razor Leaf. Bamel managed to get out of the worst of the move, with only a moderate amount of cuts.

They began to trade long-ranged moves back and forth, each looking to exploit an opening in the other's defenses. Unfortunately, as Buizel were naturally faster than Turtwig, the damage began to weigh more heavily on Naetle.

The class was buzzing as they spectated the battle. Bets were being reversed - it was looking like Bamel was beginning to impress them a lot more than he had initially.

Naetle, however, shifted his plan of attack. Instead of firing another batch of Razor Leaves at Bamel, he ran full tilt with a Tackle at ready. Bamel dodge to the side, trying to route Naetle.

Naetle then fired a batch of Razor Leaves in the general direction Bamel was running to, and Bamel had to use a Quick Attack to dodge out of the way.

That, however, left him open for Naetle. Naetle finally closed the gap between them and began to use Absorb.

That was the match. Bamel couldn't stand up to Naetle's strong Absorb for very long, eventually collapsing due to the amount of energy Naetle stole from him. Naetle then proceeded to nudge him out of the ring.

"First Round Winner: Naetle!" There was a smattering of applause at this. Those that had changed their bets to Bamel mid-fight looked irritated - I guess the underdog bet they were running didn't pay off.

"Ivan, Shift, you have ten minutes to prepare for the second match. Good luck."

* * *

Ten minutes later, we had gathered around the field again. Some of the Pokemon who got eliminated in the preliminaries managed to wheedle some snacks from the kitchens, and Apples were being passed around. I declined - I could eat after the test.

Ivan and Shift stood in the circle. Shift was his usually neurotic and nervous, while Ivan was just peeved for some reason.

The betting pools started again, but it was much more divided this time. Neither of them was particularly skilled. Shift held the type advantage, but given that neither were reported to have moves matching their types yet, it wasn't much of an advantage as well.

Ivan's attacking moves were Tackle and Bite, while Shift's attacking moves were Vice Grip and Thundershock. One resisted move and one neutral move apiece.

The match would be decided one strategy, then. Shift wouldn't be able to finish this off with one powerful move like Naetle had.

"Second round: Ivan against Shift. Begin!"

Ivan immediately began to close the distance, while Shift tried to open it as much as possible. In effect, Shift was running away from Ivan. As he was running away, Shift began to throw Thundershock after Thundershock at Ivan. Ivan, unfortunately, was able to dodge most of them and kept up her dogged pursuit.

Suddenly, Ivan shifted directions. I figured that she was trying to go for the same movement that Naetle had, routing Shift. She angled her run so that she was pushing Shift to the edge of the ring.

Shift figured out what she was doing, and then did something unexpected. He began to move upwards, manipulating his hovering abilities.

He went so high in the air that Ivan could do nothing to touch him. She tried to hit him with all of her might, but Shift just floated above all of her attacks.

Eventually, she just… stopped. She stopped using any attacks, and just stood there. Shift took the opportunity and began to fire Thundershock upon Thundershock on her. She dodged them all, but she didn't retaliate.

Could she retaliate?

Soon, however, I realized what she was doing. Shift was beginning to shake, his gears vibrating. She must have figured out the strategy's weakness - attrition. The heightened hovering couldn't last forever, as it used more energy than low hovering did. Unless you had the Levitate Ability like Kaori did, you wouldn't be able to sustain that kind of hovering for very long.

Sure enough, Shift floated back down, gears shaking. The match was over, and everyone knew it. Shift couldn't do anything to her anymore.

"Do you want to give up?" Ivan asked, a surprising amount of kindness in her voice.

"... just push me out of the ring." Shift asked. Ivan nodded, and then began to shove him out of the ring. Shift offered up some token resistance, pushing as hard as he could, but in the end, Ivan pushed him out.

"Second Round Winner: Ivan!" A little bit of applause was released at this. It wasn't much of a fight - it mostly consisted of Shift running away from Ivan's onslaught. It ended somewhat anticlimactically as well.

"Merla, Rai, you have ten minutes to prepare for the third match."

Tensions began to skyrocket once this happened. Some of the conversations I heard involved prayers to Arceus for Rai. No one was betting on this match. Naetle, Tom, and I were the only ones who ever fought Merla, so no one knew how she fought. No one would spectate her spars, either.

Ten minutes later, both of the combatants stood ready in the arena. Rai looked like he was about to die, and was looking like he would rather bolt than fight. Merla was just as impassive as ever.

"Third round: Merla against Rai. Begin!"

It wasn't much of a fight - if you could call it that. Rai instantly took the opportunity to land a Thunderwave on Merla. While Merla struggled with the paralysis, Rai floated as far away from Merla as possible - meaning past the ring.

"Third Round Winner: Merla!" Despite his apparent enthusiasm, it was easy to tell that Mr. Pix was upset. He must have wanted to see a good fight. The rest of the class, however, looked fairly relieved - almost as if they had barely avoided a bloodbath.

I rolled my eyes. Oh yes, Merla could definitely be intimidating when she wanted to be, but she would never go evil, ever. Well, she might have had I not purged that Miasma from her.

"Tom, Kaori, you have ten minutes to prepare for the fourth match."

* * *

(Tom)

I stood in the arena, waiting for the match to start. I didn't take that much damage from Glib the Croagunk (who was busy cheering me on - Glib seems to think that the only one that should be able to beat him will be the champion of the tournament), but I was feeling a little worried going into this fight.

While my Ghost Typing was effective against Kaori's psychic typing, my fire typing was weak to her ground typing. Because we had type-effective moves to use against one another, we wouldn't be having another version of the second round.

And judging by Kaori's smug face, it won't be like the third either.

"Fourth round: Tom against Kaori. Begin!"

I began to spew a Smog out onto the field. I'm waiting to showcase my new move later, so I think Smog will be a good move here.

Even though smog is weak, it not being very caustic, it has a high chance of Poisoning the opponent. I've had that happen a couple of times before, and it was usually helpful in the battle.

Kaori knows about this, though, and starts careening out of the fog, throwing some Mud Slaps at me as she does so.

I do some evasive maneuvers and curse. Ideally, I would get close to her so I could use Astonish. Unfortunately, she's smarter than that and is incredibly active on the field moving too fast for me to catch up with. She's regularly firing off Confusions and Mud Slaps as well. If I get hit by one of the Mud Slaps, it's game over.

Of course, I'm not going to stand around like a sitting duck. I take a deep breath before firing a couple of Embers at her. She begins to spin like a top, batting the Embers away as she does do.

Upon looking at my dumbfounded look, Kaori smirks. "Yeah, Rapid Spin is pretty powerful, wouldn't you say?"

Okay, okay, new plan… Kaori can blow away my Embers with her Rapid Spin. She'll probably be able to do the same with Smog. Without giving away my new move, all I'll be able to use is Astonish.

That'll put me in close range, though, where she'll be able to use Rapid Spin on me. That'll do… what type is Rapid Spin?

To get a good look a Rapid Spin again, I fire a couple more Embers at her. She laughs and swats them away, giving me just enough time to look at her move.

It just looks like her spinning, nothing else to it.

Rapid Spin is probably a Normal Type Move, then, like Tackle or Take Down. I grin, quickly formulate a workable plan, then spring it.

I throw a bunch of Embers at her. She laughs again, hysterically this time, and swats them away like she did previously. A couple of the Embers land around her as she dances around them.

That was part of the plan though. As she swatted the Embers away with the Rapid Spin, I run up to her. Once she begins to slow down, I charge up my Astonish. Seconds before my attack, I grin at her. There was fear in her eyes, oh yeah.

Jumping, I hit her with an Astonish and send her flying onto her back. She quickly gets up, but then notices where she landed.

"Fourth Round Winner: Tom!" There were a bunch of cheers at this. I had given them what they had wanted - a good fight. Plenty of action, some witty dialogue, etc. I trudge off the stage, feeling a little tired. Kaori gives me a heated glare as she floats over to where Ivan was trying to console her.

"Nice job, Tom!" Glacia congratulates me as I near her.

I (Litwick-equivalent) blushed a little bit. "Well…" I didn't know what to say, in all honesty. "Let's just pay attention to the next match.

"Ken, Vinia, you have ten minutes to prepare for the fifth match."

* * *

After ten minutes, Ken and Vinia stared across the stage at each other. Vinia was stretching while Ken was just standing there. He had bags under his eyes, too.

"Fifth round: Ken against Vinia. Begin!"

Unlike the other battles, there was no flurry of motion. The two simply stared at each other as the seconds ticked by. I was beginning to feel moderately worried because most battles were usually much more kinetic than this staredown.

Finally, Ken sighed, then got into a fighting position, before firing a couple of fireballs. These fireballs were much slower than usual, and Vinia dodged it easily. Murmurs began to spring up around the arena.

Ken began to shake, and I began to worry about his health. He looked awful. As he continued to fire his fireballs, his complexion paled, and he began coughing. Calls were shouted around the arena to stop the match so that Ken could get medical attention.

Then Vinia spoke up, her voice concerned. "Uhh… Mr. Pix… I think Ken needs help. He doesn't look very good."

Ken tried to capitalize on Vinia's forgiveness by throwing a fireball at her. The fireball, however, was much smaller than his usual fireballs, and it traveled incredibly slowly. It eventually reached Vinia and splashed harmlessly against her skin. Vinia raised an eyebrow.

Upon seeing this, Mr. Pix was forced to agree with Vinia. "Because of an unknown illness, Ken is forcibly disqualified. Vinia proceeds to the next round. She then motioned to Cora, who was sitting next to him. "Bring Ken to the medical wing, he needs attention right now."

Cora nodded, then started to drag a vomiting Ken to the medical wing. I felt a degree of sympathy for him - even though we were enemies, I hated to see someone in such a pathetic state.

Glacia began to shake next to me. I twisted my head to see her expression and was surprised to see the feral smile on it.

"Glacia, Stop, you have ten minutes to prepare for the sixth match."

* * *

Glacia and Stop stood in the ring. Glacia had a big smirk of confidence on her face, while Stop was just as nervous as Rai was. I don't think Stop was going to go the same way as Rai, though - one look at Mr. Pix could tell you that he wasn't going to be accepting forfeits anymore.

Stop then visibly steeled himself, before facing Vinia with a fire in his eyes.

"Sixth round: Glacia against Stop. Begin!"

Stop immediately began running full-tilt toward Glacia. She used Quick Attack to run away from him and began to pelt him with Shadow Balls.

They dissipated, however, when they contacted Stop's black-glowing maw. That must have been Bite - Glacia has been trying to work on for some time now but hasn't gotten it working up to point where she would be able to use it in battle.

Glacia wouldn't be able to use long-range moves right now, then.

She seemed to agree with my sentiment, judging by the fact that she closed the distance between them. She was still charging a Shadow Ball, though. When Stop tried to intercept her with a Bite, she sidestepped him and hit him in the side with a powerful Shadow Ball. Stop was pushed to the side, dragging his feet into the ground, but quickly found his footing again and rushed Glacia again.

Unfortunately for Stop, he couldn't stop Glacia from routing him. Every time he tried to intercept Glacia, she would simply move to where Stop wasn't covering and hit him with a Shadow Ball. Stop was too slow to stop Glacia, in the end. After a couple of minutes of the repetitive battle, Stop collapsed, the strain too much for him.

Glacia was breathing hard and sweating buckets, but she was smiling. I cheered for her, because repetitiveness aside, it was a fun battle to watch.

I wasn't the only one cheering, though. Rai and Lyli were cheering for Stop too - it seems to me that they were proud of his bravery for facing Glacia. I still don't understand why everyone is so afraid of Merla - she was a perfectly nice Pokemon.

In regards to Merla, my wheedling has paid off, as she'll now talk to me willingly. We had some fun conversations - Merla had a strangely dry wit, and would comment on passerby's quirks in the most eloquent way possible.

"Sixth Round Winner: Glacia!" Mr. Pix smiled. "Good match! That's what I want to see, kids. A good effort from both fighters to do the best they can in a battle. Hold your head high and try your hardest!"

Mr. Pix coughed, then continued."Okay, Jenga, Lyli, you have ten minutes to prepare for the seventh match."

* * *

Jenga and Lyli faced each other on the field ten minutes later, Jenga frowning like usual while Lyli was hyped up. I could tell that she wanted to win this fight - she didn't want their whole group (Rai, Stop, and Lyli) to all go down in the first batch of fights.

"Seventh round: Jenga against Lyli. Begin!"

Jenga immediately began to fire Poison Stings at Lyli, who began dodging maneuvers in the air. The match went on like this for some time, although I could tell that Jenga was slowly being frustrated at his inability to land a hit on Lyli.

Suddenly, Jenga began running. I was confused - he was never going to catch up to Lyli that way - until I saw that he had begun to roll. Soon enough, he was in a Rollout, much like Kase was when we first fought.

Rollout was a Rock-type move so it would be incredibly powerful against a Flying type like Lyli. Jenga began to slowly pick up speed as he rolled, and Lyli began to panic. From there it was a game of cat and mouse (or Meowth and Rattata, now), with Jenga getting ever closer to Lyli. Even when Lyli used Quick Attack to speed herself up, Jenga approached - soon enough, he was gaining on her.

Soon enough, Jenga had chased Lyli to the edge of the ring. At this point, the spectators were being blown away by the air resistance the two were creating.

Seconds away from Jenga's victory, Lyli rose in the air. Jenga then jumped into the air to catch Lyli in mid-air.

Lyli, however, dived at the last second, teetering at the edge of the ring. Jenga flew straight over her, landing outside of the ring and almost crashing into some spectators.

"Seventh Round Winner: Lyli!" There was a large mass of cheering at this, some money was being exchanged. It sounded like the betting had been set up again, with odds against Lyli. It sounded like some Pokemon felt cheated. Either way, it sounded like everyone was happy.

A little bit of eavesdropping later, and I found out why - almost everyone who had gone to the next round was a Pariah - only Shift had lost. Lyli and Ivan were the class's champions, the Pokemon they hoped would win.

Mr. Pix coughed again."Good job. Catal, Kase, you have ten minutes to prepare for the eighth match."

All of the happiness and cheer that had been generated by Lyli's win drained away instantly. Catal was _brutal_ in his fights - the only time he would let up is when Mr. Pix called the match over.

* * *

Catal's blades glinted in the sun. In front of him, Kase shivered.

"Are you ready?" Catal asked, clearly enjoying the terror he was causing Kase.

Kase shakily nodded.

"Eighth round: Catal against Kase. Begin!"

It was never going to be a contest. Catal immediately leaped forward and began to repeatedly slash at Kase. Kase flinched, then rolled away as fast as possible, trying to roll himself out of bounds.

Catal stopped him. "Now, now. You know how Mr. Pix feels about forfeits." Catal then proceeded to knock Kase to the center of the arena, and he continued to slash at him mercilessly. Kase tried to respond, using a Powder Snow or a Rollout, but Catal intercepted all of his attacks.

Within a minute, Kase fell over unconscious. Catal continued to slash.

"Eighth Round Winner: Catal!"

Catal stopped his attacks, his blades still gleaming. He quickly cleaned his blades, at a speed so fast I couldn't see what he was doing.

Mr. Pix gulped. "We have our eight winners. Will someone please escort Kase to the medical wing?"

Another of my classmates took Kase to the wing.

"Will all of the winners step up?"

All eight of us came forward - Catal, Ivan, Lyli, Naetle, Merla, Vinia, Glacia, and me.

"We're going to be continuing the tournament in one hour. I'm going to scramble the brackets right now and show you who you'll face next.

Mr. Pix twirled his fingers around and eight strips of paper began to float around, before settling down in rows.

"The First Match will be Naetle against Catal. The second match will be Ivan against Lyli. the third match will be Tom against Vinia. The fourth match will Glacia against Merla."

"You have one hour."


	10. 10 - A Torment and a Time Traveler

(Tom - One Hour Later)

We had all been separate for the hour. Mr. Pix said that since we were going to be fighting against one another we should be apart. I didn't much agree, but there wasn't much I could really say.

During the course of the hour, I had thought about my plan to fight Vinia. It certainly wasn't going to be easy in any regard - while I definitely had the Type advantage, she had much more experience than I did and was probably working to solve the issue of her type advantage. I needed to think as much as she did to be able to win this fight.

I found myself nearing Naetle, whose frightened demeanor was masking the fire buried deep within his eyes. I could tell that as much as he was worried for his safety from Catal's brutality, he was as pumped for his match as any other pokemon.

"You're up first, Naetle. Are you ready?" I whispered to him as I neared.

Naetle cracked a large smile, "You bet - I'm as ready as I'll ever be." Naetle shook himself. "One measly Pawniard isn't enough to scare me - not after what I've been through."

"What _have_ you been through, anyway? You're always talking about it but you never seem to properly explain it. I've been trying to find it out for the past few weeks," I casually mention to him.

"It's a bit of a secret. I don't think I'll be able to tell you right now."Naetle delayed.

"Alright." It wasn't much of an answer, but I'll probably be able to learn after both of us become Venturers.

Now that I think about it, Glacia's curiosity really has been rubbing off on me, huh? Before I met her I couldn't care less about the secrets of other pokemon. Well, food for thought, I guess.

All the way inside of the arena, Mr. Pix cleared his throat and waved us over. Slowly the class trickled to the arena, and after two minutes the class was paying attention to Mr. Pix.

All of. Sudden Mr. Pix started shouting. "CLASS, ARE YOU READY FOR THE BIGGEST TOURNAMENT OF YOUR LIVES?" He was blowing out the ears of the classroom with the number of decibels he was spewing.

"Maybe…?,", one of my classmates timidly said. He shrank back when he saw everyone's eyes on him.

Mr. Pix grinned. "Well, I'm glad to hear that!" He gestured to the arena. "Now, let's start! The first match of the quarterfinals will be… Naetle against Catal. Both of you, head up here right now."

Catal and Naetle then made their way to the center of the arena. Soon, Naetle's strong and stout form was directly facing Catal's lithe and slender one.

Naetle, for the first time I ever saw him, looked scared - but then he wiped that the fear off his face and regarded Catal with intensity. Catal looked bored beyond belief.

No one was betting.

"Ninth round - Naetle against Catal - begin!" With that, Mr. Pix leaped out of the arena.

Naetle immediately began to charge at Catal, firing a barrage of Razor Leaves at him simultaneously. Catal smoothly sidestepped the leafy flurry and held out his blades. As Naetle charged in with a Tackle, Catal promptly walked around the attack and brought his blades down on Naetle's back. Naetle fell to the ground, tears forcefully forming in his eyes.

Catal looked at Naetle sobbing form with a flat and unamused stare. "Naetle," he asked, voice falsely polite. "Give up. We both know you don't have the ability to defeat me. All you'll do is worry your friends and injure yourself. You're not the one I want to fight right now, and you'll just waste my time. So save us the trouble… _coward_."

Coward was the last thing I would describe Naetle as. Yet somehow it hurt him more than the slash marks Catal made, pulling more sobs out.

Naetle slowly pulled himself up and glared at Catal. "I… I won't run… not anymore… I'll… defeat you..."

Catal scoffed. "Big words for someone who's crying as we speak." He wearily pulled up his blades. "Let's just get this over with."

Naetle charged at Catal again, cloaked in a green shroud. That had to be Overgrow, his ability. Was he that tired already?

Catal smirked condescendingly. "Naetle, you never learn." He proceeded to walk out of the way out Naetle's attack and held up his blades again. As Naetle passed by him, he slashed at his back.

Naetle, however, did appear to have learned. As Catal slashed he twisted around as fast as he could and caught the blade in his mouth.

"Arghhh! Let go!" Catal futilely ordered. Naetle had none of it, though, and kept up his powerful bite. Green energy flowed out of the blade and into Naetle. Naetle slowly brought himself up, shaking at first but soon stabilizing.

"How do you like… Absorb…" he huffed, spitting out Catal's blades. Catal growled and started to furiously slash at Naetle, boxing him in. The advantage he had gained previously, however, was gone. Naetle was fighting on par with Catal now and was damaging him as much as he was being damaged.

"Stay… still!" Catal ordered Naetle, who was all too happy to oblige. Catal attacks, however, did nothing to a purple-enshrouded Naetle. As his attacks went consecutively on, they did less damage. After a few minutes of this, the only marks Catal could make on Naetle were tiny little scratches.

Naetle grinned ferally. "Absorb time~~" The Ghost energy from Curse was bringing out the sadistic in him. It wasn't his fault, really. Ghost-type energy often brought out the worst of Pokemon - unless they were a Ghost or Normal type.

Naetle was jumping around, trying to catch Catal in his jaws. However, as slow as he was, Catal was able to dance around him with ease, and was looking… (bored?)... as he did so.

Catal jumped to the edge of the ring. Suddenly everybody knew what he was going to do. Naetle jumped at him, a green glow cloaking his maw. Catal sidestepped the attack and kicked Naetle out of bounds.

Naetle immediately picked himself up, raring to go, then noticed where he was.

"Ninth Round Winner: Catal!" There was a smattering of applause at this. The match had been much more even than the previous matches and was a true spectacle of talent and strategy.

Well, what we thought was strategy at the time, anyway. None of us knew how prevalent those "strategies" actually were.

The lack of brutality from Catal and the excellent fight restored everyone's spirits. Naetle slowly walked over to us, his head hanging from a despondent shame.

"Ivan, Lyli, you have ten minutes to prepare for the tenth match. Good luck."

As Glacia and Vinia eagerly discussed the match, with Merla being prompted to respond every few minutes or so, Shift and I decided to speak with Naetle.

"Naetle… that was really good!" Shift spun, his high-pitched voice carrying on. "You had him on the ropes a couple of times!"

"Yeah…" Naetle smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes. Shift, however, was pleased and told us he was going to discuss the match with the other three. After a few seconds, Naetle and I were alone, even with everyone else surrounding us.

"Tom… can I talk to you in private… I have something I need to tell you." Naetle asked slowly, looking strangely vulnerable. Ignoring the ticking clock to the next match, I nodded. Naetle led me away from the arena, away from everyone else.

* * *

(Vinia)

Our chatter came to a close, as we finished discussing the match. Well, it was a discussion in the loudest of ways.

Shift, surprisingly loud, began to argue with Glacia. "All I'm saying is that if there were no boundaries to the fight, Naetle would have won."

Glacia looked skeptical. "Okay… but what if Catal used Fury Cutter or something? Pawniards can learn that, I think, and Catal looks like he might be able to use it."

Shift shook his head. "No way - if Catal knew Fury Cutter, he would have used it to disrupt Absorb… or something."

Glacia looked unimpressed but grudgingly nodded. "Yes, I suppose that would make sense," she said slowly. "Still, I can't help but think that Catal would have won no matter what Naetle did. Naetle just doesn't seem strong enough to defeat Catal."

For such a timid pokemon, Shift was incredibly fervent in his support for Naetle. Shift continued the argument, even when Glacia looked like she was regretting what she was saying.

"Tenth round - Ivan against Lyli - begin!"

Our heads whipped around as Mr. Pix announced the start of the match. In the time of our long and drawn out debate, the class had gathered around the arena - the ten minutes were finally up. Shift and Glacia dragged themselves away from their arguments to watch the match.

It wasn't much of a match, though. Ivan had type advantage from the get-go, and she used it to great effect. None of Lyli's attacks could even phase Ivan, and Ivan's speed and bulk allowed her to land incredibly powerful hits. Lyli frantically dodged around all of Ivan's attacks, but it wasn't enough, and she was clipped by a stray Rock Throw. From there, it only took a few seconds before she lost her balance completely and was hit by a barrage of attacks.

Ivan hit her with a final Tackle, knocking her clean out of the ring.

The crowd cheered. Despite the plainness of the battle, it was still a battle, and everyone knew Ivan wouldn't seriously hurt Lyli beyond the scope of the battle. It simply wasn't in her nature, unlike Catal.

"Tenth Round Winner: Ivan!" Mr. Pix called out. I felt a little sorry for Lyli, as this was possibly the worst matchup for her in the tournament, but there's luck for you.

"Tom, Vinia, you have ten minutes to prepare for the eleventh match. Good luck."

When Mr. Pix said that, something inside of me withered up and died. I'd forgotten that he was going to be my next opponent.

Tom…

I still wasn't able to understand my emotions when it came to him. Sometimes I greatly desired his presence, wishing that he would stick by me always. Other times I despised him to the greatest degree, wishing he was never born and hoping he would go as far away from me as possible.

Honestly, he made it incredibly hard to stay composed around him. To think, I had caressed him when I first saw him, then nearly spit in his face when I first talked to him!

No, no, stay focused Vinia, stay focused…

I use those ten minutes that Mr. Pix gave me to meditate and calm myself down. There'd be no point in acting like an in-the-heat Primeape. I remember the Hippopotacratic Oath.

 _Thou shan't cause harm to thy convalescents nor to thy allies._

According to the Oath, I'm not allowed to hurt my patients or my friends, except when I'm in a battle with them. The matches would be allowed, as would any Mystery Dungeons I go into, but nothing else.

As usual, remembering the Hippopotacratic Oath helps me regain my self-control. The ten minutes end and I open my eyes and walk onto the stage.

Soon enough, Tom heads onto the arena as well. He looks fatigued and tired and doesn't make eye contact with me. I briefly wonder if I should look into his mind with my own, before scratching it - it wouldn't work anyway. Still…

No, no. Remember, Vinia - self-control.

"Eleventh round - Tom against Vinia - begin!"

I immediately open up with a Double Team, surrounding Tom with eleven copies of myself. I then command the copies to create an illusion of Disarming Voice, before firing one of my own. I haven't shown this move to anyone before, as I was waiting for the right moment. This seemed like a good time.

Pink waves of energy erupt from the clones' mouth. These do nothing, of course, but they'll clearly be distracting, and they'll mask my own Disarming Voice so he can't disrupt it.

Tom, however, makes no move to dodge or even block the waves. He just lets the waves soak into him and barely reacts, his eyes off in a faraway place. Even when my real Disarming Voice hits him, he doesn't react.

A white-hot rage fills me as I look at him. Oh, he's going _down_ …

I Teleport close to him and fire a Confusion point-blank at him. The force knocked him over several feet away. I shiver in delight as he falls over. Good, good…

Tom finally picks himself up, and, as if waking up from a trance, notices where he is. "Oh, has the battle started?"

Then he gets blasted by a Confusion. He gets pushed to the edge of the line, and I eagerly Teleport close to him to finish the job.

Then fire. Lots and lots of fire.

I jump away from him as a vortex of flames erupts from Tom, surrounding him in a cloak of fire. I curse loudly, some of my classmates looking at me in askance as I do so. Of _course_ he does something like this - of course!

I slowly walk backward as the vortex expands, and I see Tom's face look at me in pity.

A cold, hateful rationality sets into me as I consider how to beat Tom into the ground - I won't be satisfied with a ring-out not now. Full-force antagonism, baby!

I Teleport into the ring of fire and send a Confusion toward Tom. Tom blocks it with an Astonish, confused etched onto his face. Then he flinches as I send a Disarming Voice at him, which I quickly follow up with a series of Confusions. With every Confusion that hits, I whittle down Tom's defenses.

I push him to the edge of the ring, ready to grasp my sweet, succulent victory. Tom will be forced to stand his ground, and won't be able to move from this spot as I attack to victory.

Then I see Tom's face. Though despairing, he still faces me with determination, tongues of fire leaking from the pores normally concealed by wax.

All of my hate and pain converts to sorrow and guilt. What… what am I doing? I… the Hippopotacratic Oath… no… stay focused!

But my energy drains away, and I stop attacking. My psychic and fairy energy stop responding. Desperate and helpless, I try pushing Tom, to shove him out. But even though I outweigh him, I can't muster the energy. Tom doesn't use any moves either.

Suddenly, Tom grabs me. A blush wreaks itself across my face as I try in vain to escape.

Then Tom throws me out of the arena.

I land in the grass to the side of the arena as the mindless crowd cheers at my utter _humiliation_. Yet, somehow, I can't find it in myself to blame Tom.

What is _wrong_ with me? I can't stay in one of two minds about him. I either love him or hate him, and I can't control which one I'm in. Even now, as I try to rekindle the antagonistic fire I held, I can't.

"Eleventh Round Winner: Tom!" Mr. Pix's voice rings out, intermingling with Jenga and Catal's jeers.

"Glacia, Merla, you have ten minutes to prepare for the twelfth match. G-good luck." A quaver strikes in Mr. Pix's throat. I bet he's regretting the decisions he's made.

Much like my mood, the class depresses. As they proceed to disperse, I dejectedly walk over to Glacia and Merla, hoping to distract myself. Even when Tom tries to strike a conversation with me to apologize, I continue to move forward - his attempts, though sweet, enticing, and obvious, only furthered to dig out the cavity in my chest.

"... no, Lady Glacia! It would be wrong of me to even think of harming you!" Merla, much louder than usual, was begging Glacia to let her give up. "I will forfeit and allow you to continue to the next round!"

"Merla," Glacia looked slightly irritated. "Mr. Pix will be irritated - he's using this as a partial exam, remember? You have to do this - think about your score!"

Merla, in response, gave a chilling glare to Mr. Pix, who was overhearing the conversation. Mr. Pix meeped and speed-walked away. Despite myself, I grinned.

Glacia, seeing that her reasoning wasn't eliciting the response she wanted, decided to go with another route. "You know, Merla, for the most part, this tournament has been easy for me." This statement was said with ease and confidence, and Merla clearly believed, judging by the pride on her face. "I have yet to see anyone actually test my abilities, and I'll be sad if I don't see anyone do that."

"I know what you're doing, my Lady." Despite herself, Merla grinned. "But alright, if you must insist."

Glacia sighed in relief, and so did Mr. Pix. A few minutes later, Merla and Glacia faced each other on the arena. Around us the class was tense. Rai, who was supposed to face Merla in the first round, was shaking full-force. I didn't really see why, as he had the abilities needed to combat Merla skillfully. To each their own, I guess.

Mr. Pix, now much calmer, jumped out of the ring. "Twelfth round - Glacia against Merla - begin!"

There was a large silence in the arena. My classmates began to cover their faces, peeking out for a second or so.

Glacia shook herself, smiled, yelled, then charged.

Merla began throwing Embers around the arena. Every time Glacia looked like she was about to get past Merla's freezing defenses, Merla fired another cold Ember, forcing Glacia to back off. And not without good reason - from where I was standing I could see the patches of grass Merla hit with the Ember freeze over.

While Glacia tried desperately to dodge all of the embers Merla was now throwing at her offensively, I saw Merla spitting String Shot from her mouth. She wasn't aiming it at Glacia, so I assumed she was going to use it for another purpose.

In fact, it looked like she was building something.

Finally, Glacia managed to weave out of the various traps Merla set for her and used Quick Attack to close the distance between the two. With a cry of triumph, Glacia used Tackle on Merla...

… to her mistake.

Merla pulled up what she was constructing - a large net - and threw it at Glacia. Glacia, mid-jump, couldn't dodge, and soon found herself tangled in the web-like structure. Merla then proceeded to fire a torrent of liquid silk at the airborne-but-trapped Glacia, pushing her back several feet to the edge of the ring.

Glacia struggled as a blue fire began to erupt from Merla's horns. Soon, Merla was… levitating?

Then, incredibly, Merla began to _fly_ to Glacia. She was clearly using the flames ejected from her horns as propellers, and it looked like she was about to ram into Glacia.

Then she missed.

Merla flew straight over Glacia and the boundary line, landing in the chilly grass and scattering my frightened classmates.

Everyone held their breaths as Merla slowly pulled herself up, Glacia struggling to escape the net off to the side.

"Whoops." Merla said, her face as stoic as ever. As no one reacted, she turned to face Mr. Pix. "Whoops." Her voice was harder.

Mr. Pix's voice trembled. "Twelfth Round Winner: Glacia!"

Merla nodded, then walked past the parting crowd and the boundary to dissolve the web Glacia was trapped in. Soon, Glacia was free and was walking back to our little group.

"Lady Glacia, you were amazing in that battle. I had no chance against you. It was pure luck" Merla recited in a monotone. She didn't seem to be aware that we knew the jig was up, arrogant in her nonexistent acting abilities.

Then, impossibly, Merla noticed something, and a quaver of genuine fear entered her voice, her eyes turning vulnerable for a brief time. "Lady Glacia, are you… crying?" Tears were streaming down Glacia's face, coloring her fur dark.

Glacia turned to Merla and smiled. "Merla, I'm so proud of you. You showed your strength, and you beat me fair and square. I'm… I'm sorry you lost, though."

Merla brightened under Glacia's smiling gaze. "It's alright, My Lady." Tom then engaged Merla in a conversation, distracting her. Glacia's smile cracked, and her emotions poured through. I didn't need my horn to tell what she was feeling.

Regret.

Hate.

Jealousy.

Anger.

Sadness.

She… she lied to her. To Merla.

Mr. Pix began to speak. "I will randomize the matches again for the next set of matches. The competitors will be Catal, Tom, Ivan, and Glacia." He wrote in the book he had in his hand, waggled his finger, considered something, then continued.

"Here are the matches: Thirteenth match: Tom against Glacia. Fourteenth match: Catal against Ivan.

* * *

"Tom, Glacia, your match begins in an hour."

The group was separate for that hour. Glacia began to avoid Merla, who was confused and scared. Shift was hanging around, fretting, while Naetle was simply avoiding any form of conversation. Tom went away to practice or something. All in all, we had been divided.

I almost wanted to chase after Tom and give him a walloping (my rage had come back) but managed to hold myself. I read the emotions of our classmates, who were understandably nervous. Many of them were hoping that Ivan would come through, as she was the only Pokemon that wasn't intimidating, a bully, or a Ghost-type.

Realistically? She had no chance whatsoever against Catal. Ignoring type differences, which a lot of Pokemon have fallen to in this tournament, she had nowhere near the power needed to fight Catal and his overwhelming brutality. She would collapse in agonizing pain not too long in the fight, mark my words.

Mr. Pix was wringing his hands. I could tell he lost control of the situation long ago and was regretting holding the tournament in the first place. Nobody was going to win today - nobody.

Soon, the hour was up. Tom stepped onto the arena, looking faintly nervous, while Glacia held a core of rage within her. She was probably going to use this fight to restore the last vestiges of her pride and unleash her frustrations.

"Thirteenth match: Tom against Glacia! Begin!"

Glacia started the match with a Shadow Ball, and I realized that was how she would be forced to inflict any damage, thanks to Tom's typing. Tom, for his part, dodged the attack and let it blow up behind him in an explosion of crackling purple energy.

Glacia was nowhere near done though. She began running at Tom full-tilt, charging a Shadow Ball during a Quick Attack. It looked like Tom had a counter-measure, though. He began to fire Embers in her path, constantly forcing her to make a sharp turn away from him. Tom was holding Glacia at bay like this, even though she was still charging the Shadow Ball.

She twisted and fired the Shadow Ball. Tom dodged again, and I began to see frustration and anger develop on Glacia's face.

Suddenly, a devious smile appeared on her face, and I began to worry for Tom. Glacia used Quick Attack again, to close in on Tom. Tom fired more Embers at her so that she would slow down, but she jumped straight over them.

Landing next to Tom, she used Sand Attack.

What happened next shocked many of us. Tom began to cry and doubled over in pain. Glacia mercilessly kicked more sand into his wax, which caused him to tear up. There was no sympathy in Glacia's eyes at this point.

Tom scrambled backward, panic in his eyes. Glacia charged a Shadow Ball and hit him, sending him nearly over the line.

Then, rings of fire erupted outward from Tom, in a rhythmic pulse. Glacia dementedly grinned and leaped straight through the fire, singing her fur. She used Sand Attack again and flung more dirt at Tom, where it seeped into his wound.

The cry was haunting - and then I began to despise Glacia, for taking this too far. The hate Glacia was radiating was awful, causing me to recoil. I looked around, and while my fears were reflected in most of my classmates, there were exceptions. Catal was smiling slightly, while Jenga too had a demented grin on his face. And Merla…

We all thought Merla was our friend. But on her face… radiated nothing but pure joy.

Then something miraculous appeared. As Glacia was desperately trying to push Tom out, a glowing orange ball appeared in the air. As the scuffle went on underneath it, it slowly pulsed, making most of us wonder what it was. Mr. Pix seemed to recognize it, though.

The glowing orange ball then split and flowed into the combatants. Rolling around over their skin, it seeped into them.

Then Glacia was the one to scream, a high-pitched whine ringing through the air. Wounds began to create themselves on her skin, and I wondered just what Move Tom had used on her.

The move, in addition to hurting Glacia, seemed to have healed Tom, because the wounds inflicted throughout the course of the tournament partially vanished. Soon Tom began to fling Embers and Smogs at Glacia, who was frantically dodging the assault.

"Stop!" The battle petered to the stop. But it wasn't Mr. Pix shouting this - he looked as baffled as we were.

Merla, face livid, regarded Tom with hatred. Any friendship she had with him was clearly swept under the rug or forgotten - she regarded him with the same hateful intensity she now showed Catal (who, incidentally, looked like he was just awarded a million Poke).

"I'm tired of this charade. Any more attacks, _Tom_ , and I'll make you wish you were never reborn." Nervous whispers grew louder and louder around the arena as Mr. Pix lost any resemblance of control, fretting nervously.

"Merla…" Tom spoke under his breath. He shook his head, the goopy wax flung everywhere. "No, Merla - it isn't right."

Merla's eyes, if anything, hardened even more. "Forfeit now… or else." Any friendship was gone now.

Tom's eyes searched Merla's, begging for any respite. I could tell he found none. Then, after a minute, he shook his head. "No." He faced Glacia, his heart resolute. "I'm taking this to the end."

Merla crossed the arena line, her horn flaring a heartless cyan as she began to spin fibers of frostbitten silk.

"Merla… stop." A small whisper crossed the arena. My ears perked up - it was… Glacia?

Merla stopped dead in her tracks. "Yes, my lady?" Her voice rung out, eager to please.

Glacia faced Merla with deadened eyes, holding nothing but contempt. "Merla," Glacia's voice softly spoke, every word threaded with malice, " do you think I'm incapable? Of… not being able to win?"

Merla hurriedly backtracked. "N-no…?"

Glacia's eyes grew colder than Merla's. "Then why are you here? I didn't ask for your help… and I certainly didn't want it." Glacia dismissed her with a loathful look. "Leave, you _bother_ … I'm going to finish this Arceus-cursed fight."

Merla gaped with shock. I took the chance to Teleport in and Teleported her out, facing no resistance. As I pulled Merla back, the ferocious battle continued undaunted, ghostly energy and flames being flung everywhere as anyone with a modicum of common sense slowly backed away from the arena.

Merla's eyes were glassy, her mouth hanging open. Using my horn, I could tell that she was still trying to come to terms with the awful things Glacia had said to her. To anyone else, it would seem like paltry irritation, but to the socially inept Merla...

What is this about? Glacia was never like this before - even when she was at her angriest, she held a great amount of self-restraint (much more than I had shown earlier anyway). But this…

I had accidentally insulted Glacia's pride before when we were studying together. I had told her that the esteemed "education" she must have received clearly lacked in some areas. Of course, I regretted it, but Glacia was still the angriest I had ever seen her.

That paltry anger was nothing compared to what she was like now. The Eevee on the stage looked like Glacia, fought like Glacia, even sounded like Glacia, but _wasn't_ Glacia - not the one I had spent time with.

I tried to use my horn to delve into her mental state (ignoring the rules placed before me), but my probe kept disappearing before I could tunnel too deep into her psyche. The probe would simply dissipate as it neared her, which was driving me insane.

Wait… disappearing psychic probes… unnaturally violent behavior (for Glacia)... altered personality.

This means one of two things. Either there's a Zorua masquerading as Glacia for some reason, or…

I scanned the crowd, looking for glowing hands. In the back, I found Catal, blades glowing black, watching the match with amusement. As the battle wore on his blades grew a darker and darker black.

I recognized the move he was using, and it filled me with a hateful rage.

Torment.

* * *

" _M-mom?"_

" _Yes, sweetie?"_

" _W-what are you doing? It looks like you're h-hurting him."_

" _Oh, don't be silly, Vinia. He enjoys this."_

 _Screams of ecstasy alternated with shouts for mercy as the Gardevoir alternated granting the Garchomp Euphoria and using Torment._

" _Mom… this is scary."_

" _Leave then. You've hung around long enough already. Go and play with your dolls or something - if you won't help, or even be quiet, then you're nothing but trouble."_

" _... yes, mother."_

* * *

I bit back the memories. Now wasn't a good time for them, in any case.

"Merla… Merla…" I shook Merla because I needed help for what I was going to do. I didn't think she was going to object, either.

She snapped out of her trance listlessly. "What…? " She spoke to me, tired and jaded.

"Look." I pointed to Catal. Merla looked at Catal with indifference. Not for long, though, as she too noticed his hands. The apathy in Merla's eyes gave way to an unyielding fire.

"Torment…" she whispered. It looks like she recognized it too - probably from her Catal-serving days. She started her jets, but I put a hand on her head.

"I'll Teleport us there. Ember at his back when it's exposed, got it? He probably won't stop using Torment even if we threaten him, that's probably his bread and butter after all." Merla nodded. I grabbed some of Merla's fuzz and Teleported to the back of Catal

Merla didn't spend any time hitting Catal with a barrage of flames. Upon being hit, Catal cursed and whipped around, Torment stopping as he did so. He and Jenga soon faced Merla and me.

"Well, looks like the traitor is back. Come to turn back to our side?"

Merla began to spit at him. "Never, you vile creature." She began to shoot Ember after Ember at him. Catal dodged with grace, though, laughing all the while.

"Oh, dear… looks like I hit a nerve, didn't I? I just made it a bit more fun, you know. Everyone with half a brain could have seen the effect your forfeit had on her pride.

"What?" Merla stopped the onslaught, looking perplexed.

"Isn't it obvious? You could have easily won that fight, within a few seconds too. Everyone realized you went easy on her and pretended to lose. You fooled no one."

Merla's eyes widened in shock, before shaking her head, steeling her stance once more. "Quiet, liar."

Catal chuckled. "Oh, a liar. Not in this case - you heard what she said. 'I don't need your help, Merla.'." The little circle we formed grew silent. "Everyone heard it. I didn't make her say that - Torment only brings what's inside out to be beared to all. She felt it, though she didn't say it."

Merla was silent, her eyes steeled. Her heart betrayed her though - I could sense the panic and denial roiling around inside her.

"Either way, there's something far more interesting going on. Look." He pointed to Glacia. I didn't take my eyes off of him at first, but when my classmates started gasping I chanced a look.

Black fumes started to emanate from Glacia. The battle had paused, as all of a sudden Glacia fell to the grass convulsing. Everyone fled as plumes of the unsettling obsidian mist flew upward. Glacia began to convulse, her fur discoloring slightly, turning from tan to a navy blue. Tom tried to help her up, battle forgotten, but once he came into contact with her he recoiled as if struck by a hot iron, his wax darkening.

Merla began to emanate panic in incredible amounts. I looked at her and saw memories of nightmares being awoken. Some of the mist traveled to where we were and while all I felt was a chill, Merla started to convulse as well.

Everything was going to Distortion in a flash. Mr. Pix was running around like a headless Ducklett, all of my classmates had fled to the Base, Catal was laughing his head off, and my friends were being tortured.

All I could do was stand there.

Well, until the black fog began to roil around me as well. I could tell that it was looking for a sign of weakness, anything to enter me. I could tell that if that happened…

I tried to blast it away with a Confusion. It did nothing.

The fog encircled closer, and I began to wonder if it was all going to end here.

Then, out of nowhere, Naetle came charging in and hit me with a full-force Tackle. I pulled myself up from the ground he had knocked me into, scared that he had been possessed by the mist. One look at his face told me this wasn't the case.

"Naetle, what is this?" I begged for answers.

Naetle turned to me, fright evident on his face. "I think… it's Dark-type energy!"

"What?"

Naetle nodded. "I think that's what it is - I've felt it before."

Well, I had felt Dark-type energy too, and it was nothing like this. Still, it was a better guess than whatever I had thought.

I had a solution, too. I fired waves of Disarming Voice at the mist, which began to dissipate. It works!

* * *

Five minutes and some Disarming Voices later, all of the Mist was gone with the wind. Tom and Glacia were recovering from the mist, their hides' pigments returning to normal. Merla began to recover from her fit and was breathing heavily.

The tournament was over, of course. There was no prize for winning, no necessity for a victor at all. All of this was so that we could entertain ourselves before the big Dungeon tomorrow - the nightmare it had turned into was not intended. Mr. Pix interrogated each of us separately, to see what we knew about the strange mist that had enveloped the arena. None of us could answer.

The class was dismissed. Naetle and Shift headed home. Tom went to eat some food and regain some of his energy. Merla and Glacia went off somewhere, probably to make up or something.

I was alone.

What a victory.

* * *

(Glacia - The Next Morning)

I woke up, feeling just as tired as I had been when I went to sleep.

What happened yesterday… afterward, I had apologized to Merla, and she tearfully accepted it, but I couldn't shake off the guilt that surrounded me. I had… said those things. Those awful, awful things.

Normally, those words wouldn't affect a pokemon. They would have enough self-esteem and independence to move on and even forgive.

Merla, though? She was still recovering from her lifelong connection to the Miasma. Her emotions were brittle and fragile, and I'm _everything_ to her - one wrong word from me, and any sort of progress she makes disappears in a poof of smoke.

And what I said was _definitely_ a wrong word. I had thrown aside everything she sacrificed to me and said that I didn't need her. For someone who had pledged their life to help me, it would be like losing an arm.

Part of this is my fault, I think. In the castle, I had more servants than I knew what to do with. Other than Sharon, I could boss around anyone I pleased, and they would have to catch any and all of the fallout. The future is hardly like that - I have to take responsibility for my actions.

Merla reminded me of the past. She would have been my lady-in-waiting, my personal servant, and closest confidant. She was the closest thing I had to home, and I relished in it. I took full advantage of her as well. I didn't send her to do my dirty work, as I would have if Merla was mentally stable, but I took Merla and her patience for granted.

I can't be doing that anymore. Merla has her own form of agency, and I can't rely on her to do whatever I want her to do, whether it's through an interpretation I didn't particularly like or anything else, really. While I've been her friend, I've also been using her and making her dependant on me.

That has to stop.

Call me lazy, but Merla has to change, not me. I can't grow the patience of Arceus, not when Catal is around and Merla still needs me, not fast enough. I would eventually snap at Merla again - it's simple probability. Merla has to weaken her dependence on me so that when I eventually snap at her again she can recover more reliably.

Merla needs friends.

Tom had made some headway earlier, but yesterday cleaned all of that away. They'll try to rebuild that relationship, though. I have faith in them. I'm pretty sure Vinia will try to do the same, and Naetle and Shift are likely to help as well.

Is that enough?

I shook my head and got out of the nest. Time to get ready for the dungeon.

After packing my bag and hauling it outside, I found Merla waiting for me. She wanted personal space, even though I could tell she wanted to be closer to me than ever. Vinia was there too, her eyes staring off into the horizon.

I coughed. "Vinia?"

She came back to Naixe. "Wh-what?"

"Are you two ready?"

Merla and Vinia nodded.

I hefted the bag, its weight heavy. "Then let's leave."

We met Tom, Shift, and Naetle at the arena we were at yesterday. Marks of yesterday's tournament still showed although any last trace of the Miasma was gone thanks to Vinia's Disarming Voice. The rest of the class was there too.

Mr. Pix finally showed up - but he didn't seem to be very happy or well-rested. I wonder how many nightmares he had suffered last night thanks to the tournament.

"Hell… Hello, kids," he half-heartedly spoke, nearly all of his usual cheer missing. "T-today will be your final exam. You'll have to face a Mystery Dungeon and return by dusk to become a full-fledged Venturer. Well, only some of you."

There was a smattering of concern at this. What did he mean, only some of us?

At our inquisition, he explained. "You remember the other exams, right? The written exam, the emergency situation, the tournament? Those were all used to determine whether you would be capable of holding your own in the Mystery Dungeon. They, essentially, were the test you had to take to be able to take this test.

"And not all of you passed."

There was concern spread out among my classmates.

"The following list of students are the ones who have failed thus far."

Mr. Pix began to rattle off names. I realized, with a start, that none of the Pokemon that had made it into the entry level of the tournament were able to pass.

The preliminaries weren't there simply to make the number of tournament participants form a power of two. They were there to weed out a third of the entire class.

Cora noticed this as well. "Hey! No one from the preliminaries passed!"

Mr. Pix turned around to her. "Yes - that was the point of the tournament, after all. Think, Cora - the tournament was an exam, even though I didn't actually watch the preliminaries. It didn't matter how well you did in the preliminaries - as long as you won and passed into the entry level, you would pass the exam."

"Then what was the point of everything afterward?"

"To make the pairings for today's exam. I chose Pokemon with matching or complementary skill sets for today so that you could work well together."

That was a strike in everyone's face. Someone like Rai, who didn't even fight, passed, while Cora, who was a strong fighter in her own regard (not as strong as me, but still), was eliminated.

Mr. Pix noticed the apprehension in the air and chuckled weakly. "Oh… you thought that everyone who got past the preliminaries passed?" There was a pressing silence. "Thought that I had chosen randomly?" The silence grew. Vinia shifted uneasily next to me.

"Nope! Those that got byes were chosen beforehand, not because of any innate skill but because of Captain Falcon's decision. He made it so that each pokemon who received the automatic pass would have something to contribute to the Base whether they passed or failed the test. Take Vinia, for instance." All eyes turned to her.

"She has been training consistently with Ms. Kiss to become a Healer. Even if she doesn't become a Venturer she will still be a productive part of the Base. She didn't need to take the exam, because she's stuck with this Base either way.

"Stop has spent countless hours learning how to create fortified arenas like the one beneath your feet. Lyli has trained to be a messenger, allowing her to ferry messages to other bases quickly. Shift and Rai will help manage the electricity the Base uses.

"Bamel and Kase handle ventilation and the plumbing within the Base, making sure that we have access to water. Kaori is Mrs. Kiss's apprentice, helping her in the library constantly. They are the ones who allow the Base to stay in one piece. If those currently in charge of these utilities you take for granted… 'leave', they will be the ones responsible. This is the _least_ we could do."

The class was silent. The Pokemon who Mr. Pix had called out by name began to look green, as they realized the price they paid for the bye. They were chained to the Base now - they would be forced to stay here and help with the grunt work for as long as they worked here.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Vinia's voice rang out, cracking at points. "I-I just wanted to learn how to heal! I don't want to be forced into doing this!"

Mr. Pix's eyes shone with fake warmth. "Well, Vinia, if we told you would have to take over one day, you would have left while you still could. Now, though?" He shook his head. "You're with us. Permanently."

He turned to the rest of the class. "Oh, and I didn't tell you about passing the preliminaries being necessary to pass the exam so you kids couldn't politick and cheat your way to victory. We came here to test your abilities, not how popular you are."

Some kid found his voice. "W-what about what you said three days ago. How we fight in the tournament, our placement…" He suddenly caught the double meaning. "E-eight groups of three! You said eight groups of three!"

Mr. Pix acted as if he hadn't heard him "Those who received byes won't be taking the exam, and neither will those who failed in the preliminaries. As those two groups each consist of a third of this class, sixteen of you will leave now." He turned to the kid. "Nobody ever said I couldn't lie, kid." Suddenly, my image of the friendly, kind Mr. Pix was left by someone who had no compassion, someone who only cared for his appearance.

The class dissipated. Only the eight left from the preliminaries - Catal, Jenga, Ken, Ivan, Merla, Tom, Naetle and I - remained.

Mr. Pix stretched as if to work out a few of his muscles. "Well, they're gone. Time to tell you what the final test is. What actually will happen is something different than what I told you three days ago." He stopped to chuckle to himself, muttering 'eight groups of three'.

He snapped himself out of it and continued. "You still will be going through a Mystery Dungeon - that hasn't changed. A lot of other things have, though - you will be working in groups of four for the test. We've decided your four-man teams already. The three pokemon you take the test with will be those you work with for the majority of your career. "

"If you manage to get through the Mystery Dungeon you were given all by yourselves in the allotted time, you will graduate to become Venturers." Mr. Pix pulled eight scarves from the inside of the bag he was carrying. "These are scarves that will change to a specified color once you've entered a Mystery Dungeon. Your job is to return these scarves to me, with its new color, by sunset. Escape Orbs and Pure Seeds are still illegal to use. If you use them the scarf will change color - that will signify you've cheated."

"What's stopping us from dyeing the scarves ourselves to cheat?" Tom asked, raising his waxy hand.

Mr. Pix smiled. "Tom, the color change isn't in the pigment of the scarves. The scarves were enchanted by a Mismagius from another base. They have enchantments to show the true color of the scarves outside of any pigment, and they have properties you won't be able to tamper with. Don't bother trying to cheat - we've done this for more years than you've been alive.

"Either way, I've decided the teams you guys will be in for the exam. Team A will consist of Catal, Jenga, Ken, and Ivan. Team B will consist of Glacia, Merla, Naetle, and Tom. Team A will travel to Castle Rock for their exam, while Team B will travel to the Abandoned Tower." He tossed each of us a Map as well as a blue scarf. On the Map was marked a tower one and a half hours away.

"As I said, you have to finish by sunset. That gives you… twelve hours? Either way, your test starts now. Good luck." He yawned. "I need to go take a nap.

* * *

(Five Hours, a Trip, and a Mystery Dungeon Later)

We crawled out of the dungeon, exhausted beyond all reckoning.

After Mr. Pix dismissed us, we left for the Abandoned Tower. The walk was tense - nobody knew what to say after all that had occurred that morning. A third of the Pariahs wouldn't be able to become Venturers, simply because they had volunteered for the Base on their own time.

Arriving at the tower, we spared no time entering.

It. Was. Awful. The Dungeon was nowhere near as simple as we had wished for. The tower was filled with Ghost, Dark, and Flying-types, which we all had trouble with.

After three hours of Venturing, we made it to the top of the tower. The Mystery Dungeon closed behind us, and we were left with our now green scarves.

"Huh… that was… awful…" Tom collapsed. After our battle yesterday, a lot of his pain tolerance had left him. Every time he cried out in pain, I winced. He wouldn't be hurting so much if I hadn't flung that dirt into him.

Earlier in the Dungeon, Tom told me that the Sand Attack had hurt so much because it _wasn't_ an attack. Tom's wax could redistribute the force behind physical blows and tank special moves like nobody could, but moves like Thunder Wave and Sand Attack could leave him helpless due to them not attacking him directly.

Wax, when taken away from a Litwick, usually doesn't nullify or reflect blows - it just cracks. A Litwick's spirit allowed the wax to gain special abilities, increasing its defensive capabilities.

Moves like Thunder Wave and Sand Attack weren't registered by Tom as attacks, however, and he unconsciously let them through any of the wax's shielding properties. Since he did have something akin to a nervous system within the wax, the dirt and sand that made it into the wax would be like sandpaper, and it interacting with the nervous system, Litwick's _brain_ \- not pleasant at all

It would take a week or two for him to expel all of the debris inside him, he assured me. He would be more vulnerable during that time, and nowhere near the painless powerhouse, but he could still fight.

When I asked him how he knew all of this, he told me he had 'sources'. I desperately wanted to know what 'sources' but held my tongue.

For a short while, we sat on the pinnacle of the Abandoned Tower, just trying to catch our breaths. Even Merla was winded and exhausted. On the final floor of the Dungeon, there was a Monster House.

* * *

" _Come on, guys! We went through every other tunnel, so the last Staircase must be up ahead._

 _*Bodies crash to the floor*_

" _Monster House!"_

" _My Lady, I'll fight them off!"_

 _*Hundreds of bodies began to drop from the ceiling*_

" _My Lady, we should run!"_

 _*A long, long run later*_

" _The Staircase! Quickly!"_

* * *

I'm pretty sure we laid there for at least an hour, just trying to get our breaths back. It was nice, just standing there without any fear from the Dungeon. Of course, Tom had to ruin it.

"How are we going to get back down?"

Nobody answered.

Ugh… right, we had to return to the Base with our new green scarves to prove we actually did it - and by sunset as well. Luckily, it was only noon - we had six or seven hours left before we failed. Given that we have a one and a half hour walk, we have five hours of leeway to get down from here.

"Does… anyone want to have lunch?" Naetle half-heartedly asked.

No one had any objections. Even Tom had some food, saying that he needed material for his "biosynthesis" (it didn't look like he knew what that meant). We had plenty of food from the Dungeon, so we passed him an apple and dug into our assortment of berries. I wish there was some meat in there, but beggars can't be choosers.

After we had filled our bellies and rested for about thirty minutes, we came back to the problem at hand.

"We can't go back the way we came - the Mystery Dungeon will capture us again, and we'll have to go through the entire Dungeon again in reverse." Tom noted.

"Yeah, but there's no other way down, is there? We're alone on the top of the tower." Naetle reminded me.

I sighed. "Yeah… we can't climb down, there are no foot-holds."

Tom was pondering. "Climbing is impossible, and going back through the Mystery Dungeon is the absolute last resort." Tom sighed. "This wouldn't be a problem if we had Vinia around to Teleport us to the bottom."

"Well, I don't think we can ask for her help - not at this point." I snarked.

Naetle looked a lot brighter, all of a sudden. "Yeah, but Tom has a point. We have plenty of time, so all we have to do is figure out a more unconventional way to get down. Let's think of other ways we can move."

"Ways we can move?" Tom asked, confused.

Naetle nodded. "Teleportation is a way of moving. All we have to do is get down from this tower - it doesn't necessarily have to do with walking or running."

"What, like swimming or flying?" Tom asked.

Flying… Flying…

"Merla, when you fought against me yesterday you used your flames to rocket yourself forward, right?"

Merla nodded. "It came to me in a dream."

Clever. Merla's beginning to learn subtlety, keeping my power secret. She was the only other pokemon who knew for certain that I could enter other pokemon's dreams. Vinia suspected something, I imagined - I asked her if she had ever been in a prison before. Thinking about it now that might be bad for other reasons, but it's too late now.

Tom leaned forward, interested. "Can you do it again?"

In response, Merla shot upward a few meters with blue flames spouting from her horns before gentling falling down.

"How much can you carry?" Naetle asked.

"I haven't tested that yet." She replied tersely. "I've only now just gotten used to flying."

"Well, I weigh the most of all of us, so if you can carry me we'll be able to get down."

I nodded. "Merla, try and lift Naetle."

It turns out that Naetle was too heavy to lift - and so were Tom and I. Merla, it turns out, couldn't lift more than double her body weight. As she had to lift her own weight as well as her bag, she wasn't able to lift us at all."

"Well, while Merla will be able to take herself down, we can't follow." Tom said, irritated. Merla's face remained stony.

Damage control. "Tom, we have to accept that. For now, we have something we can use to get Merla down."

Tom huffed. "Well, what else can we do? Make parachutes?"

What?

"What are parachutes?" I asked.

"Parachutes are… they're like…" Tom was scrambling for words. "They're like the sails of a boat or the wings on a Flying type. They catch the air so that you fall down faster."

I… would have never thought of that. "Do know what they look like"

"Like an upside-down bowl, but we have nothing to make them out of." Tom explained.

"That's not true. " All eyes turned to Merla. She had been withholding herself for most of the conversation. "I can make things out of my String Shot. They have to be able to be formed from strands of fiber, but I can make things out of it."

Oh yeah, String Shot. It was how she trapped me yesterday. Funny how I forgot about that. "Well, how much can you make?"

She sighed, vexed. "It's not unlimited, but I can probably make enough for what Tom is describing."

"Yes! That's gr-" I was in the middle of cheering when Naetle interrupted me. Merla gave him a large stink eye but he continued undaunted.

"That's great and all, but how are we going to fill the spaces in between?"

"We empty our bags and use them as patches? I can pull off a bit a wax and use it as glue" Tom suggested.

I interjected at this point. "We should hurry. If we're going to make this… parachute… device, we should do it now. Time is passing."

So with that, we started building. Tom drew a rough diagram with a stick and I could see how it would work.

Merla made an incredibly long strand of String Shot, and we fashioned it into a rectangular net with four strands coming from each corner. We tore one of our bags and used it to cover the hole, before gluing it with Tom's wax (he said it was painless, which was concerning).

Soon we had something resembling a parachute. It was close but not quite similar to the drawing Tom had made.

"Well, we're done." I said, wiping my brow. I chanced a look at the sky and felt panic seize me. The sun was lowering in the sky, and in a few hours, it would set.

"Guys, we should leave now!" I pointed to the sky.

Tom shook his head. "We have to test it, to make sure it'll hold up our weight."

So we tied it around Naetle and had him jump off the turret of the tower onto the platform we were on. It held up and slowed him down, but not by enough. His stout legs buckled, and that was a strange sight.

"I don't think this will work, it's still going too fast." Naetle said.

We were running out of time and were out of ideas.

"What if…" Merla spoke up, her voice weak. "What if… I were to support you with my flight?"

We didn't have a better idea, so we tried it as well. It went much better the second time around, and Naetle came down at a controlled speed.

Once he landed with Merla, he immediately ran to the edge of the tower. With a leap, he jumped off the tower. A few minutes later, he landed at the base of the tower. Merla flew back up with the parachute and I went next.

After I hovered down similar in the manner I did in Merla's dream, the process repeated with Tom. Soon, we were all safely on the ground.

The sky was beginning to darken - we had spent too many hours wracking our brains trying to escape the top of the tower, more than we had actually traversing the Dungeon. We ditched the parachute and ran as fast as possible to Jeden City.

* * *

We made it with only a few minutes to spare. Only the tip of the sun was left remaining in the sky as we rushed into the base. Mr. Pix was waiting in the arena he had dismissed us in.

"Congratulations!" He seemed to have rested well, the monster. Sending us off to a Mystery Dungeon while he caught up on the sleep he missed - how dare he!

"You have made it in just enough time. I can see that your scarves are the requisite green, so you pass!"

I sagged to the ground. Finally, after all this time, I had made it. I mean, I was forced to by Captain Falcon, but that hardly seems important. Next to me, the others relaxed as well.

"Well, time to get up. We still have things to be doing!" Mr. Pix was obnoxiously cheery.

"W-what about our Teams and stuff, and badges, and…" Tom began to stammer, but Mr. Pix cut him off.

"Look, Tom, that's where we're going. Captain Falcon is going to be waiting for us, so we best get a move on."

Suppressing my flash of irritation, I joined the others and followed Mr. Pix to one of the mission rooms.

Inside Captain Falcon was waiting. There was a cold warmth in his eyes if such a thing exists. He spread his arms wide. "Congrats! Your four are half of our graduates this year. The other four made it here an hour ago, but it doesn't matter - what matters is that we have a few more pokemon in our Base!"

"As of this day forth, the four of you will be known as Team Ness!" With that, Captain Falcon clapped his hands. Our scarves shimmered and sparkled. "Look, you even have pretty scarves!" Sure enough, our scarves were embossed with a silver picture of a milky sphere.

Captain Falcon was charming and upbeat - unsettlingly so. He left no place to enter the conversation, prattling on and on about our duties. Eventually, he went off on a tangent.

We walked through the base without interruption. Mr. Pix showed us to some of the facilities we could now use, including the storage units kept by the Lock-Keepers and some files in the library the Venturers had sole access to. I couldn't be bothered to pay much attention, though.

Finally, we entered the residential area. Mr. Pix led us away from the tunnel that led to our old rooms and brought us through a new path of tunnels. We finally arrived at a pair of pristine wooden doors.

"These are your rooms. Merla and Glacia will sleep in the room to the right, while Tom and Naetle will sleep in the room to the left. You are expected to defend your own rooms as Venturers - your possessions are now your responsibility, so if they are taken we will do nothing to help."

Definitely going to use the storage. Probably.

"Every morning there is a briefing in the Amphitheater for Venturers. You are expected to go to them now. In the meetings just try to fit in, and you'll do fine. After the briefing you can do whatever you want. There is a Mission quota you will have to fill for a month, scaled by the difficulty of the missions you are taking. Any questions?"

We were silent.

"Great. Now I'll be seei-"

"Mr. Pix, I have a question." Naetle asked, his voice subdued.

"Yes, Naetle?" Mr. Pix replied, shifting his weight around.

"What will happen to those that received byes. You know, like Vinia and Shift."

The smile fell off Mr. Pix's face for a fraction of a second, before being plastered on again. "They have their own facilities now. They were introduced to them earlier today. They didn't seem to mind that much."

"Are they allowed to take missions?" Naetle asked, quickening his voice.

"Yes, they're allowed to take missions, but nothing above C rank missions, and certainly not if they have no replacements."

"Oh…" Naetle frowned, looking miserable. Mr. Pix began to look rather uncomfortable.

"Well, I'll be leavi-" Mr. Pix began to leave, but Naetle interrupted again.

"Why?"

Mr. Pix's smile grew strained. "Why what, Naetle?"

"Why is the system like this? Why tell them they can't become Venturers after training them for a year to become one? Why tear away their hopes and dreams when all they wanted to do was help after school? Why?" Naetle's voice was rising, growing more hysterical by the second.

"Well, that's just how things are around here. The system has been in place for a long, long time, Naetle, and it's worked for this long. We can't tell them they won't become Venturers, because they'll object and cry and stuff, and hey, we didn't _have_ to train them." Mr. Pix chuckled. "It's just the way things are, Naetle."

Naetle just sat there, shell-shocked. Mr. Pix finally decided to leave. Before he left, he said one last thing. "Oh, and kids?" He grinned. "Remember what Wigglytuff always said - smiles go for miles."

With that, Mr. Pix left.

The hallway was silent for a time.

"... not like this…" Naetle muttered under his breath, rage infused in every syllable. "Wigglytuff… he wasn't like this… he wasn't like this at all…"

I decided to step in. "Naetle, we know you're angry, but please try to calm down. Getting angry… it won't solve anything." I felt the sting of hypocrisy.

Naetle shook his head. "Wigglytuff… he wouldn't have stood for this… _I_ won't stand for this." At that, he began to run away. I tried to stop him, but he barreled past me…

… straight into Merla's silky fibers. Merla must have laid a trap when she saw the situation escalating, thankfully.

Naetle struggled to escape, but Merla's fibers were stronger than he was - that was shown earlier today. He gnashed at the strings with his teeth, but it did next to nothing. At last, he petered out and stopped struggling, most likely still tired from our test. "Merla, can you let me go?" Merla shook her head, cross.

I decided to speak up. "Naetle, we… understand your concern, but we'll get in trouble if you attack our teacher. Everything we've done until now will be pointless. We'll fix this together."

Naetle sagged, looking tired beyond belief. "Fine… I won't attack…" He looked positively miserable. Merla pulled him out of her trap, and he walked back over to us, sitting down in the middle of the hallway.

"He… I can't believe it… I just…" Naetle began to stammer, angry tears in his eyes. "Only a third of our class could follow this dream. I… I don't think I could have let myself win if I knew that I would be crushing somebody's dream…" Naetle wiped away his tears. "Mr. Pix is nothing like Wigglytuff - Wigglytuff would be ashamed to hear that Mr. PIx was trying to emulate him."

"Well, we don't know for sure. Wigglytuff lived thousands of years ago, and nobody knows what he actually was like since everything about him was passed down in legends." I argued reasonably. "Wigglytuff was in _The Tales of Eonia_ , and he was described as never having his smile leave his face."

Naetle shook his head. "He was sad sometimes, and he cried. He would always fight for what was right so that we could smile easier. He would smile as much as possible, yes, but he wanted to spread positivity. Mr. Pix just smiles to pretend he's like Wigglytuff."

Naetle turned to face us properly. "Wigglytuff was stupid for most things, and obnoxious, and naive… a-and he fell asleep in the weirdest of places.. but he would never trample on someone's dreams, just because it was a tradition! Never in a million years!" Naetle swore.

The hallway was silent. Then I addressed something. "You're making all these claims about Wigglytuff, but I don't think any legends talked about how obnoxious Wigglytuff was, or how he slept. Are you just making that stuff up?"

Naetle vehemently shook his head. "No!"

"Then how do you know this?"

Naetle began a cold sweat. "I… I…" he tried to delay. "I…"

Tom stepped in. "Naetle, just tell them. We're a team now - I think you should trust them."

My eyes widened. A secret - how many of those did this team have?

Naetle nodded. "Yeah… you're right Tom. I'll tell you guys my secret." He looked around. "Not here, though. Pokemon can still hear us."

We walked into our room. It was clean and reminiscent of our old room, but I didn't pay much attention to it. Naetle stood by the wall. He took a deep breath, then began to reveal.

"I… am like Glacia." He admitted. "I am from the past; a time-traveler."

You could hear a pin drop in the room. My breath was stolen away from me.

"You came here in a Dimensional Hole, right? Was it like a big, blue disk that was wavy with alternating bands of light blue and black light?"

Shell-shocked, I stepped back. I had yet to tell anyone what the Dimensional Hole looked like, or even that it existed, only that I stepped through it. That he knew what it looked like as well…

"Looks like I'm right. The reason I know what a Dimensional Hole looks like is that I came here through one too."

"What time period?" I asked, frantic

"Uh… what?" Naetle asked, tilting his head

"What time period did you come from. I came from around 2000 years ago - when did you come from?"

"4000 years ago."

That was farther back than I was! Then I realized something. "That was around Wigglytuff's time period! Are you saying you actually met him!"

"I was one of his apprentices, Glacia. Do you think I lied about what Wigglytuff was actually like? Why do you think I laughed whenever Mr. Pix falsely praised Wigglytuff, saying that he was handsome and stuff?"

My eyes widened. "Wait, in the legend of the Temporal Grovyle and the Lustrous Celebi, Wigglytuff aided them in finding the Gears of Time and-"

"Time Gears." Naetle interrupted

"What?"

"Time Gears. They were called Time Gears, not Gears of Time."

"Oh…" Suddenly a lot of the legends I learned from _The Tales of Eonia_ began to look fabricated. Wigglytuff was one thing, but… they were called Time Gears?

I shook my head. "The Temporal Grovyle and Lustrous Celebi traveled millennia into the past to meet Wigglytuff. Did they ever tell him how to go _back_ in time?"

Naetle shook his head. "My partner and I did."

I was confused. "W-what? How?"

"How to travel back in time or how did we tell him?"

"Both!"

"My partner and I told Wigglytuff because we had traveled back in time. I've been through Dimensional Holes twice now - the first time was traveling to the nightmarish future 3000 years ago and the second time to the present day."

I sat down, tired. "Let me think about this, please." Naetle nodded, and I sat down.

Naetle was a time-traveler? He knew Wigglytuff? He knew the Temporal Grovyle and the Lustrous Celebi? He's time-traveled twice now?

Calm down Glacia, easy girl. Focus on what's important.

"How did you go back in time, to your old time?"

"The Passage of Time," Naetle succinctly answered. "Celebi has time-travel abilities, so she opened the Passage of Time for us and brought us back in time."

"What is the Passage of Time?" I pressed further - I had to know - this was the biggest lead I had so far.

"The Passage of Time is what Celebi uses for long jumps in time, to go back in the past much farther than she had previously. My partner, Grovyle, Celebi and I jumped into it to save time."

"Why aren't you in it, then? The legend?" I asked, the words spilling out.

Naetle began to look frustrated. "I don't know! My partner and I were famous in our time, but 4000 years later and no one knows our name!"

I was about to continue on a tangent, but Merla exasperatedly steered us straight. "Naetle, where is the Passage of Time? We need to know."

Naetle made an aggravated growl. "I don't know! I know that 2000 years ago it was in Dusk Forest, but Dusk Forest doesn't exist anymore!"

My eyes widened. More proof that he was from the past - he knew that Dusk Forest existed. Most of the landmarks from my time were gone, the only exceptions Vast Ice Mountain and the ruins of Eonia Castle. Dusk Forest was lost with time, and I lamented its passage.

To know that someone else knew it existed…

Merla was irritated. "Then what can you do that could help us?"

Naetle grew silent. "I don't know," he whispered. "I'm still trying to find my partner - he was with me when I time-traveled the second time, and I don't know where he is. I became a Venturer so that I could go across the Rings and search for him. I need him - he's helped me this entire time."

Merla dismissed him. "We don't need your partner, we need the Passage of Time."

Naetle shook his head. "We need him - he's always been there for me. I was a coward before I met him, and I've relied on him for everything. Before I time traveled, we were incredibly strong. We took down Mespirit and Dialga together."

My mouth gaped open. Mespirit? Dialga? They took down _legendaries_?

Naetle continued. "My partner has a special ability, called the Dimensional Scream. It allows him to look into the past and future. I can't think of a better ability to help us right now when we're so lost."

Tom stepped forward. "Alright, that settles it. It's getting late, so here's what we're going to do. We're going to find Naetle's old partner, find the Passage of Time, and get you two back to the past! Who's with me?"

The room echoed with determination.

Tom pointed to the door connecting our rooms. "Glacia, Merla, get to sleep. We have to talk about this tomorrow morning."

I was too tired and elated to object, and so was Merla (although she was more reserved than I was). We finally had a lead. _I_ finally had a lead. Suddenly the month I spent here at the Base felt less like a waste and more of an opportunity.

I turned to Merla, a smile ripped across my face. "Come on, Merla - let's go to sleep. Tomorrow's a big day!"

* * *

A voice crackled from the orb. "I placed all of those you were interested in on the same team, Father. I will have to contact my daughter as soon as possible and get her to coax the group into joining. It will be difficult, as she doesn't particularly like listening to me, but I'll manage."

"How do you plan on doing that, Night?"

"I'll have Falcon send her on a mission to the prison. She'll have no choice, and I can use the opportunity to turn her to our side. We will have only a short window, but I can manage."

"Great. If we can pull… Team Ness, was it… on our side, we'll have an advantage."

"Father, I understand why you want the girls, but why the boys? I don't understand why you are so fixated on the Litwick… well, other than having the same evolution family."

"That's none of your business, dear. I don't particularly care for the Turtwig, but Tom… I have to see him in person. Anyway, tell me how the project is going."

"It's going fine, Father. Nyx has been sending me plenty of negativity to work with, so it's been growing well. In fact, I had #624 test it earlier today in secret, on Glacia. It was a partial success."

"Are you insane?"

"I asked Catal the same thing. I told him to use it on a random Pokemon, hopefully on a baby so that it goes by mostly undetected. Luckily, it was only a partial success. The Miasma was dealt with on-scene - Vinia's doing - so there were no permanent repercussions."

"I see… other than the Miasma disappearing, what happened."

"The Inversion was well-underway until Vinia interfered. Your predictions were correct, father. Merla reacted badly to the Miasma, and Glacia's skin was undergoing pigmentary alterations. It was stopped and reversed, though. I don't know what would happen if it went to completion."

"How was it stopped"

"A Disarming Voice."

"Alter the Miasma to resist any type that might have a type advantage against it. It will be difficult working with it if any Fairy, Bug, or Fighting-type moves can dissipate it."

"Understood, Father. Shall I leave?"

"You may leave. Before you go, tell me… how did Tom react?"

"The Litwick?"

"Yes, how did he react?"

"Poorly. His skin discolored as well, at a much faster rate. I'm still trying to figure that one out."

"..."

"You already know why that happened, then. Why Tom's skin discolored."

"I have a working theory. I have to meet him face-to-face to know for sure."

"Well, alright then. I'll arrange a meeting."

"Excellent."

The orb turned off. Nyx turned to face him. "Father, what happens if Venture Bases not under your control find out? What if they figure out that Night is controlling the Captain."

"That's what minions are for, dear."

She huffed and flicked magenta hair out of her eyes. "If you send them away, I won't get to hear any of them scream."

"Well, you have your own personal prison. Get your fix from them."

The Inverted Gardevoir pouted. "My prisoners have already gone insane already. Too much negativity is bad for your brain apparently."

"This is why Night and I have told you to balance it with positivity so they will remain sane enough to continue to give you negativity. You drained your well too fast."

"Hmph."

"Well, go kidnap some pokemon from a couple of towns over and have them be your new prisoners. Send your other prisoners to Night, she'll know what to do with them."

"I think I'll just buy some from Henka, he always gets the good ones first." She stood up and Teleported away. "Oh, and thanks for the extra life energy, I needed it."

"Whatever, dear." The Inverted Chandelure turned off his dark-orange light and brightened the room. "I'm going to go to sleep"


	11. 11 - A New Angle

(Merla)

 _The dark mist seeped through the air, convulsing as it swept through the room. It caressed the family's possessions with great care. Rax's old toys, her mother's fireproof books, and her father's potted plants were all touched. As the mist touched the possessions, it warped them. Toys became statuettes of horror. Books filled with nightmarish imagery, imagery that would shatter the mind. And the potted plants… Best not to talk about them._

 _Rax watched her from his position in the rafters, his fear obvious. Merla could sense him as he tried to avoid touching the mist. He was a fool - the mist wasn't bound by the rules of matter. It could pass through anything._

 _Merla, in vain, tried to hold the mist, the miasma, back, but she continued to fail as it spread throughout the room. She didn't have enough energy to call it back to her at the time._

 _(Although, she was curious what her mother's book would read in its corrupted form. After a second's thought, she decided that she was better off gathering energy. She would need it for the eventual tug-of-war against the miasma.)_

"Merla?"

Merla whipped around, and everything - Rax, the room, the miasma - flew out of focus. Glacia was looking at her in askance. Her lady whipped her head around as she tried to view everything (she avoided the plants, though).

"What… is this where…?"

Merla smiled with a note of sorrow. "Yes, my lady. This was the house I lived in when I was younger."

"... a bit dreadful, isn't it?" Glacia commented, with no small amount of nervousness - she, like all others, feared the Miasma. Merla remembered the dream in which Glacia saved her somewhat, the one that came true.

Calling it a dream would be somewhat inaccurate, though. That rocky world where they had fought against the Miasma was still accessible. Merla could leave into it any time. Through raw luck, she was in the rocky world at the time she had met Glacia. They had been able to purge the Miasma from within her because of it.

Merla had a few theories about why the rocky world was special. But she decided that they were too insubstantial to take note of.

In the meantime…

"Yes, the miasma was awful." Merla gestured around her. "I only know what a normal family looks like because I read books often. They were the books that I managed to keep the Miasma from corrupting."

Lady Glacia didn't seem very pleased with the scenery, so Merla decided to exit the dream. Rax, the miasma, it all disappeared as they appeared back in the rocky world. Merla looked at the veins running through the world. Glacia postulated that this place represented her mind. Merla prayed it wasn't so.

It would mean she would have to confront why her mind looked so… _barren_.

Lady Glacia gasped. "Back here again?"

Merla nodded. "Where would you like to go?"

Glacia considered the question for a few seconds, catching her breath.

Then she spoke. "I… I remember that the first time I was here I saved you from the Miasma. I replaced Catal from that disk-like thing. A copy of me appeared there, right? I wish to see it again."

Merla nodded, and they were off.

They walked back to where she had used to pray and worship Catal. Even now she looked at that period with disgust, remembering the… lengths… she had to go to please him. Merla supposed she should be glad Catal only had a god complex and nothing else.

They reached the disk. There, instead of Catal, glowed an ethereal version of Glacia. Her skin was lustrous, her eyes beacons in an unforgiving world.

The real Glacia gazed at the prettier version. The prettier version gave them both cold, hard looks. It was reminiscent of Catal, in some way.

Finally, Glacia spoke up. "Why do I… look like this?"

Merla didn't know what to say. If Glacia was right, this would be Merla's mental representation of Glacia.

As if reading her thoughts (which might be possible in this world) Glacia continued. "Am I this… angel… to you?"

The prettier version only glared harder.

"I don't know." The fake stared at them some more before it sniffed and snubbed them.

Glacia was silent for a minute. Then, her voice wavering, she asked another question. "Do I look this… cold?"

Merla didn't know how to respond. There was no simple answer to that question, after all.

The events at the tournament, with Catal's Torment and the Miasma, had thrown everything back to the way it was. It had thrown it to the way Merla feared. Merla was alone with the Miasma once again, and it had flown back into her. She had resisted it, and Vinia had managed to burn the Miasma away, but she could feel vestiges of it in her system.

She had checked her mind for any remnants of the Miasma and found small pockets of it.

She had burned it away. Immediately.

Now there was no Miasma left in her, but she still felt infected. Merla was thinking of pranking Catal. She might as well put some of the skills he taught her to good use, and what better target than the teacher himself. It would be a good revenge, either way- Merla _knew_ that Catal was the source of the Miasma.

Merla berated herself - why wasn't she suspicious of Catal? He _happened_ to have a glowing rock that could suppress the Miasma - how could she have been so _stupid_!

Merla shook herself, bringing herself back to the situation at hand. "I…" she tried to form.

Merla's mouth was dry, and she found that she couldn't move her mouth very well. She knew that she should tell Lady Glacia, as she had asked, but…

 _Merla raced to the boundary line - Tom could hurt Lady Glacia!_

" _Merla… stop." Glacia's whisper echoed throughout the arena! Merla immediately snapped to attention, forgetting what she was there for. Lady Glacia needed something of her!_

" _Yes, my lady?" Merla attempted to sound as subservient as possible, which was new for her._

 _Then Merla chances upon a look at Glacia's face, and what she saw chilled her. A dead, dark view, holding nothing but that all-too-familiar hatred. Merla could almost feel the oppressing Miasma in the air_

" _Merla." Glacia's voice, laced with poison, asked. "Do you think I'm incapable? Of… not being able to win?"_

" _N-no…?"_

" _Then why are you here? I didn't ask for your help… and I didn't want it." Glacia dismissed her with hate broiling in her eyes. "Leave, you bother… I'm going to finish this Arceus-cursed fight."_

" _Bother…"_

" _Bother…"_

" _BOTHER…"_

" _BOTHER…"_

Glacia's rejection echoed louder in her head, reverberating and giving her a headache. Merla shivered and held herself back. She could almost hear it sounding out loud in the rocky world of her mind.

No, she _could_ hear it!

Glacia's pale and cruel rejection sounded throughout the world. It went "bother, bother, bother, _bother_ ". Every time Merla heard another consecutive "bother", she curled up further into herself.

The luminescent Glacia on the pedestal shook and crumbled. The cold smile turned hostile and bared its teeth at her.

"Stop!"

Glacia's voice - her _real_ voice - cut through the din in her mind. Almost immediately the echoes fell to a constant murmur in the back of her mind. Merla paid full attention to Glacia.

Glacia was shaking and sweating, her fur matted from sweating. But that was nothing compared to the room on her face.

Glacia was _afraid_.

In the month that they had been together she had been Merla's shining beacon of hope, her last island. Whenever Merla had felt sad (which was often), she would look upon Glacia's face and see raw determination. Whether it be in studying or practicing moves or even debating with Vinia - she never felt fear.

The notion of Glacia in fright - it rocked her to the core. Sure enough, images of Glacia's frightened face adorned every surface of the rock. Like demented mirrors, Glacia's visage of terror faced her no matter where she turned.

Glacia saw this too, and this time Merla could see sadness on her face.

"Why is my being… scared so important to you?"

Merla could have answered in many ways. She could have said it was because Glacia was her Lady. She could have said it was because Glacia was her friend. She could have lied and said it didn't matter. But her mind took the liberty of answering for her, in a most unsatisfactory way.

A new mantra echoed - "You're safe now, Merla - I'm going to be here for you." It echoed over and over again. Every time Merla heard it she felt a little more confident, a little stronger, a little more ready.

The real Glacia spun around, hearing her past-self promise safety to Merla again and again. She teared up. "Merla… why?"

"You are my everything." It wasn't said in the way trashy romance novels she had read once or twice usually depicted. Instead of a tearful male or female pokemon reciting it to a lover, it was a slave to her master, for that's what she was.

"You are not." Merla jumped a foot into the air. Glacia looked at her with an intense gaze. For a moment, Merla couldn't breathe.

"You are not my slave, and I am not your master. It was a… mistake… of mine to let those notions fester in your head." Glacia admitted with reluctance. "It was a mistake, Merla. I shouldn't have let you rely on me so much."

"But… I…" Merla tried to form words, but couldn't. Luckily, the rocky world substituted for her. It showed images of Glacia staring at her with malice and dropping off a cliff. On second thought, the images could go die a painful death.

Glacia ignored the images. "Merla, I am not abandoning you. I will never in my right mind abandon you - _never_. I was… angry and upset with you on the day of our tournament, and the Miasma took control of that, turned me against you. I'm not a bastion of hope, either - I'm as mortal as you are, and hold… fears… of my own." Glacia bit the last part out.

Merla didn't know what to think. She tried to straighten her thoughts. "I… why were you angry and upset with me?" Merla clung to what Glacia had said earlier. If she could figure out the problem and identify and crush it, everything would go back to normal!

Glacia replied with care. "You… attacked my… _pride_." She admitted the last bit in a whisper. Merla couldn't see why. "You were much stronger than I was. Yet, you forfeited to me because I was too weak to hurt you; because you losing on purpose was the only way I could win." The confessions came in intermittent pauses.

Merla felt her breath stop. Glacia had _known_ about the deception. Merla had been able to recognize that Glacia wanted a good, fair fight. Merla knew, though, that if they fought for real, she would have won with ease.

"I know it… wasn't my fault that you managed to beat me. You were better than me, and I'm coming around to accepting that. But… at the tournament, I hadn't understood that - not to the degree I have now, at least. I thought that even if I lost, I would at least force you to desperation or something like that. I hadn't expected the utter defeat.

"It made me feel like… I wasn't good enough. Like I needed help to win any sort of fight. I felt angry, upset… hurt. The Torment afterward weakened me further. It made me more susceptible to the poisonous ranting of my mind.

"It came to a head with the battle against Tom. I felt desperate and angry, and I don't think I was thinking straight. All I could think about was winning, to restore my pride, to remove my doubts, to… _prove_ … to myself that I wasn't helpless. To prove to myself that I didn't need to have my paw held.

"When Tom turned the tables with that glowing… Pain Split?..., and you came to my aid, I couldn't suppress my anger anymore. I had to snap at you. I had to... relieve… some of the tension."

Merla could only shake, the ground tremoring along with her.

Glacia recognized this. "Yeah, I know, that's a weak apology. It's all true, though. I was angry with you, but it was more my fault than yours. The day before yesterday, I was the one at fault.

"But right now, _this_ scares me." Glacia waved to the entirety of the rocky world, and a spike of panic ran through Merla. "My words… they have an effect on you. Too much of an effect on you. I've seen loyal servants, _had_ loyal servants, but they would have been afraid of this as well."

"My words… they shouldn't affect you this much. As my servant, they _should_ have some effect on you, but this is ridiculous. One bad word from me and your world will crumble around you."

Merla couldn't speak, spellbound by Glacia.

"I need to help you, Merla. You need more pokemon helping you. If I have another bad day and I forget to moderate my words, your world shouldn't crumble around you. I'm not much of a Conkeldurr, but even I know that you need more than one pillar to support a building. Right now, I'm your _only_ pillar - and every time I crumble, you crumble along with me."

Merla's mouth was dry again, rasping. "More Pokemon helping me?"

Glacia nodded with resolution. " _Friends_ , Merla. _Friends_. Tom and Vinia told me how they tried to help you, to be a friend, but you rejected them in favor of serving me. I've had servants before, but as far as I could tell they had a social life as well. I had a Musharna called Sharon, who was my closest confidant and my most loyal friend."

"If I demeaned her, mocked her, she wouldn't throw a fit, her life in disarray. She would have taken it and later accepted my apology. _That_ 's what I need you to be, Merla. Not a mindless slave whose only purpose is to do my bidding, but a servant, a _friend._ I need someone I can rely on when everything is crumbling around me."

Things cleared up in Merla, the turbulence calming down. "You want me to be your… friend?" It was strange. Merla thought, from the days of Catal, that a friend was someone who did the dirty work and served the other friend.

Glacia nodded. " But I don't want you to be only my friend, but also to be Tom's friend, and Vinia's friend, and Naetle's friend, and Shift's friend. I need you to be able to rely on more than me, in case I fall. I need you to have more than one pillar, Merla - because if I fall, you fall too."

Merla sweatdropped. "I… need time. I don't think I can do this right now, Lady Glacia"

Glacia was beginning to emit sparks of light. "It's alright, Merla. You can have some time. We'll work on your friendships later, but I'm feeling myself start to disappear. It's time for me to wake up, now. Let's go and relax, for now." With that, Glacia disappeared into a shower of lights.

Merla decided that this rocky world didn't serve her tastes. She followed Glacia into wakefulness.

* * *

(Tom)

Tom trudged to Team Ness's room, feeling exhausted. He wasn't able to go to train with Alice the night after the tournament due to the pain caused by the Sand Attack. Alice demanded to know why - and when he told her the reason, she was livid.

* * *

"She _what_?"

"She flung dirt into my wax, Alice."

Soon, Tom found himself having to use his might to drag Alice back to the training room. Alice immediately tried to run as fast as possible to Team Ness's room - most likely to teach Glacia lesson.

Alice raged in the training room, the ethereal flame in her lamp glowing brightly. "I can't believe the nerve of her! Do you know how much damage that could have done to you!"

"I thought that Sand Attack didn't cause any damage?" Tom asked, perplexed.

"It doesn't - not to non-Litwicks, anyway." Luckily, Alice slipped into teaching mode and away from rage mode. "Our nervous system, the way we sense, think, and act, is in our wax, Tim. If debris gets into our wax, the debris will chafe against the system. It will cause unimaginable pain - well, you can imagine it now, but I bet it _was_ unimaginable when you first felt it."

Tom nodded, understanding somewhat - then he thought of something. "Why was the Sand Attack so special - how was it so much worse than the dirt I usually touch? Why don't I double over in pain if I touch normal dirt and sand?"

Alice whistled. "You only doubled over? That's impressive - when I was first hit by a Sand Attack, I almost fell unconscious from the pain."

Tom rubbed the back of his head and grinned unabashedly.

"Either way, the reason why the Sand Attack was special was that of the aura in it," Alice explained.

"Aura?"

Alice sighed. "Aura, Tim, is the force behind our attacks. It allows Tackle to be more than a tackle, Quick Attack to be more than a fast tackle, and Astonish to exist as a move at all. Aura is in every attack, refined into a form of Typed energy, even if only Lucario and Riolu can use it in its raw form. Every pokemon that can learn a move, though, can use a form of Type-refined aura to some degree."

Tom was pensive. "So… because of this 'Aura', I can use moves?"

Alice nodded. "It's also what makes Sand Attack and Sandstorm different from normal dirt. Litwicks have a special film over the wax that keeps anything from going in. It's a protective layer, to be more concise. The layer of film repels normal dirt, sand, and dust, so you are safe from that. Moves like Sand Attack and Sandstorm? They're charged with Aura, meaning they can punch through that film and enter your body."

"Oh…that's... neat," Tom spoke.

Alice sighed. "Tell that Eevee friend of yours -"

"Glacia."

"Whatever. Unless she wants to cause mental trauma to you, she should not use those moves when you are anywhere near her. If she doesn't agree or breaks the promise, I'll sort her out for you."

Tom flailed around. "No, No! She'll agree, she'll agree!"

"Hmph - she'd better. That Sand Attack won't work on me, as my iron is completely unaffected by it. She'd regret her life choices."

Tom felt like he needed to defuse the situation. "A-Anyway, Alice, what are we working on today?"

Alice grinned, and her smile took on a feral edge. "I heard you learned Pain Split, right?"

Tom nodded, feeling a little nervous. "Yes?"

Alice rubbed her hands together, and a maniacal glint grew in her eyes. "Well, we'll have to practice that, won't we."

Tom gulped.

* * *

Tom touched one of the wounds on his wax, hissing as he felt a spike of pain. Training consisted of a barrage of attacks at him, which he dodged or endured. Once he suffered a lot of damage, he used Pain Split on Alice to heal himself up.

He got a _lot_ of practice in with Pain Split - and a realization of how slow he was.

He entered Team Ness's room to find Naetle flitting about in a panic. Once Naetle heard him, though, he turned and breathed a sigh of relief. "Tom! There you are - I couldn't find you when I woke up, where were you?"

"Training?"

"You were training? At night?"

Tom nodded. "Yeah - I'm a Litwick, meaning I don't have to get a lot of sleep. I'll sleep once a month or so, for some internal repairs to the wax or something. For the most part, though, I don't need it."

Naetle pouted a little bit. "Ugh, I wish I could train like that! I need to get stronger! I need to to be near the level I was at before."

Tom then remembered something. "Hey, that reminds me. You said last night that you were able to face Dialga and Mesprit, right?"

Naetle nodded. "Yeah?"

"How? You couldn't beat Catal the day before yesterday."

Naetle sighed. "Let's say that that the time travel robbed me of my strength and power. I lost muscle memory for moves, and I forgot a lot of things from my old life. Oh, I remember the important parts, sure, but I forgot a lot of things."

"You think you should check that out?"

Naetle gave him an unimpressed look. "Says the Pokemon who had _his_ memories removed?" At Tom's flushing, he chuckled. "Yeah, no. Amnesia doesn't scare me - do you remember I told you I had a partner?"

Tom nodded. "Yeah, you told us last night."

"Well, what I didn't tell you is that my partner was an amnesiac as well when I first met him."

"More amnesiacs?" Tom didn't know how to react to that. He decided to go for levity. "I didn't know that losing your memories was so popular lately."

Naetle gave him a deprecating smile. "You forgot it as well."

They smiled together.

They smiled together, aware of how far they had fallen… well, not Tom.

Naetle gave off a tired sigh and stretched a little bit. "You two would have gotten along - you were a lot like him. Strong, courageous, always nice, etc."

Tom was then reminded of something else. "Say, why did you time travel in the first place?"

Naetle looked bewildered. "The first, second, or third time?"

"All three?"

"The first time I time traveled, a pokemon dragged me and my partner into a Dimensional Hole. We landed in an apocalyptic future where time was dead. The sun never rose, the wind never blew, water never fell, etc."

"Why didn't you freeze to death?"

Naetle grew an even more bewildered look on his face. "What?"

"I heard somewhere that heat is motion energy. If time stopped, wouldn't that mean that everything became super cold? You're a Turtwig, right? Why didn't you freeze to death?"

"I guess… instead of time stopping, everything froze into place...I'm not sure, I'm not that smart." Naetle gave off a helpless shrug.

"Oh… continue."

"So, the second time we time traveled, it was to go back to our previous time. We used that Passage of Time I mentioned last night. The third time… it's all a little blurry. I'm somewhat sure something dragged me into another Dimensional Hole _,_ but it's all a little blurry. What I _do_ know, though, is that I was on a level higher than Captain Falcon. The time travel ripped away my fighting ability to its last drop."

With a bang, the door to the girls' room opened. Glacia trudged and swayed through the door, Merla trailing her. Glacia let out a huge yawn and spoke with exhaustion. "So… are you guys ready?" She managed to ask, her shoulders slumping.

Tom went over to help her up (with Merla, of course) and answered her question. "Yeah, but are _you_?"

Glacia yawned again. "What do you…" another yawn "What do you mean?"

"You look like you didn't get a wink of sleep last night."

Glacia looked through him with baggy eyes and slurred an answer. "I golt plenty off sleep last nIght." With that, Glacia fell asleep.

Merla went and picked her up, sighing. She turned to the two other confused members of Team Ness. "I don't know why she's like this - we both had a full night of sleep." Merla slung Glacia over her back to lie next to her bag. "We need to get going. Oh, and I've decided that to maintain my social abilities, I will become your friends." Merla said it in her usual standoffish way, but Tom could feel a form of vulnerability in the statement.

Not that he was complaining, no siree.

Naetle smiled. "Let's make this a great day, team!" Naetle leaped forward in a buoyant bounce, leaving Tom and Merla to scramble behind him.

For a Pokemon that reminded Tom of a turtle, Naetle was nimble. They ducked and weaved through the crowd of surprised Venturers. Of course, the Venturers looked at them with annoyance as they came through. Many of the Venturers didn't want to have to deal with these annoying little brats, but hey, what can you do?

There was one team, though, that Tom made a note of not to cross in the future. A Dragalge, Florges, and Volcarona gave them a dark stink-eye as they made eye contact during the chase. In fact, now that Tom thought about it, the Volcarona was the one they met during their first day in the base. It was the one that pointed them to Ms. Kiss's medical ward. Tom hoped he didn't do anything to offend the Volcarona.

Speaking of the medical ward, Tom wondered how Vinia was doing. She was going to be working there full-time now, as opposed to only for a couple of hours per day like she used to. Tom resolved himself to go to the ward later that day so that he could visit her, to see how she was doing.

He would have to wait for more than a day for that visit.

Soon, a panting Tom and Merla caught up with Naetle in the Amphitheatre. A crowd had already formed there and was growing larger by the minute. More Venturers trickled in from their own respective mini-bases.

Captain Falcon stood upon the stage, surrounded by flickering lights. Tom had to wonder how often they ventilated the room to take care of the torches - flames need fresh air, after all.

With a wave of his hands, Captain Falcon called the Base to order. "Hello, and Good Morning!"

"Good Morning," everyone chanted back - well, except for Team Ness. Glacia was pretty much out cold at this point, with Merla busy taking care of her. Tom was abstaining on principle and Naetle… well, he didn't feel like it, as far as Tom could tell.

"One!" Captain Falcon began.

"Don't Shirk Work!" At this, Tom could see Naetle light up and join in with the chant.

"Two!"

"Run Away and Pay!" Now Tom felt like joining in, but still, he refused.

"Three!"

"Smiles Go for Miles!"

Naetle then piped up, louder everyone else. "Hip-Hip, HOORAY!" Naetle then, disobeying his biology, jumped up high in the air with his stubby legs.

The entire Amphitheatre went quiet at Naetle's outburst. The smile that formed on Naetle's face gave way to bemusement. "Why was I the only one who said it?"

No one talked. Then…

"Four!"

"Peace to Restore!" Naetle fell back, his mouth gaping open, his eyes wider than Tom's mouth.

"Five!"

"Maintain your Drive!"

The chant went on and on, adding more and more numbers and mantras to the chant. With each number past three, Naetle fell into a deeper panic, his pupils dilating.

After ten or so, the chant came to a stop. Captain stood up straighter, a smile on his face. "Great job, guys! Way to show the Base spirit!" He waved his hand in a sweeping motion. "No important news for today, other than the introduction of two new Teams - Team Knight and Team Ness! Please give them a warm hand."

There was a large clapping motion. The Venturers near Team Ness congratulated and commended them on their graduation. Tom saw Alice, along with a few other Pokemon, move to talk to them. Other Venturers blocked them, though. Tom signaled to Alice and her team that he would make time to talk to them later.

Alice received the message and backed off, her other team members following her. The rest of Team Ness, though, still had to deal with the onslaught of Venturers. Well, the rest of Team Ness except for Merla, who was alone. Oh, and as Tom was a Ghost Type, the Venturers shunned him as well

If you thought about it, Glacia and Naetle were the only ones congratulated. Glacia seemed to have redeemed herself in the eyes of the base by ostracizing Merla. When Glacia told them that Merla was still her friend, they acted like they didn't hear her.

It had to end, though, and soon enough the crowd trickled out. Everyone had left, except for Team Ness and Alice's team. Alice's team, which consisted of her, a Greninja, and a Galvantula, made their way over to where Team Ness was standing.

"Tim! Nice to see to you in broad daylight!" Alice waved her posts in an eager manner. "Is this the rest of the team you've been so proud of?"

Glacia flushed. "Wh… Tom, do you know her?!"

Tom let out a nervous laugh and explained himself. "So, uh… you know how I've been gaining a lot of strength so fast? Well, Alice here has been training me every night so I can be stronger. It started out as something to make me strong enough to fight Catal. We continued, though, even after she thought I was ready to take him on."

"Wrong, you're still not ready enough to take him on. You couldn't beat Glacia, who lost to him a while back." Glacia growled under her breath and Merla's eyes flashed red. Tom needed to perform damage control.

"That's exactly why I could take him on! Glacia could take on Catal right now with a paw tied behind her back, and since I tied with her, I could beat him as well!"

Alice looked at Tom in disbelief while the Greninja snorted. "Yeah, yeah, keep telling yourself that. We took a look at the tournament for a couple of minutes two days ago and saw Catal beat down that Spheal. Kid's gonna grow into a monster. Based on Alice's reports on your progress, you're still unable to beat him in a straight fight. You _might_ be able to beat him if, for a second, he was stupid enough for you to trick him to cross the line, but it would be a 50-50 split."

The Greninja destroyed Tom and Glacia's pride with ease. Glacia shook with near-unsuppressed anger. She blocked Merla, though, when she moved forward to deliver retribution.

Alice would have continued to rub salt in the wound if the Galvantula didn't knock their heads together. "Alice, Koga, knock it off. Keep it for the outlaws, not the allies."

Alice pouted. "Myga, you ruined our fun!" Even as Alice said this, Tom could tell that Alice and Koga were expecting this.

Myga rubbed her buggy temples. "I can't believe you're sixty years old, Alice. You act like you're a quarter of that most of the time."

"S-sixty?" Tom's eyes bugged out. "You're sixty?"

Alice turned to him confused. "Why is that…?" She hit her head with her post. "Oh Arceus, I forgot to explain to you our lifespan and aging." Alice turned to Koga. "How much time do we have until we should report to the Mission Office?"

"... twenty minutes?" Koga shrugged.

Alice considered the time limit, then nodded. "Yeah, we can fit an explanation." She turned to Glacia. "Unless you can explain it, Glacia. Tim's mentioned that you're a smart cookie."

"Uh… no, I don't think I've read about the lifespan or aging process of Litwick. Have you, Merla?"

Merla shook her head. "I don't focus on trivial facts."

Alice sighed. "Well, guess I'm teaching, then. Mind, your team should pay attention if you plan to be friends for a while." That snapped everyone to attention.

"We do have a nervous system in our body, which can decay over time. Our immortal spirit supports the rest of our body, though. Our body repairs with ease as a result. Since we don't have a conventional genetic code, we don't have the problems that come with that genetic code. We don't age - or to be more precise, we're not forced to age."

Glacia had a look of confusion etched on her face, followed by realization. "You control your age!"

Alice chuckled. "Well, yeah! While I'm sixty years old, I haven't changed my looks of personality since I was fifteen! Of course, when we evolve our age changes with it - to Lampent, it's a teenager, while to Chandelure it's a mature adult. An adult Litwick can revert to a teenager as a Lampent, and can regain youth and vigor!"

Myga decided to pipe in. "Alice told us she's been looking for a Dusk Stone so that she could evolve for decades! As Alice is sixty, her nervous system is decaying. Unless she wants to lose her non-spirit sensory or motor systems, she needs to find one fast. The age of the nervous system is the only thing you guys can't control."

Alice grinned. "I'm not some crotchety old pokemon yet, though. Don't underestimate me!"

Tom, who had been silent for the most part, decided that now was the best time to speak up. "Wait, so that means I can become an adult right now?" Tom was a little scared. He felt like he was ten, but the knowledge he can become more than that…

"Nope! Your maturity only increases like that when you evolve. The Litwick line has a faux lifespan of around 60-80 years, same as a human. It's the length of time you'll live if you don't decide to stop your aging and don't evolve."

Myga groaned. "Alice, why are you bringing your imaginary humans into this? You're the only one that thinks they're real."

Tom felt the world shake around him as Alice smiled.

"W-what?" Tom heard both himself and Naetle say, both of them looking pale. Glaica and Merla looked confused at this response.

Myga sighed. "Humans are some imaginary cocktail creature Alice invented when she was young. She always refers to them, even when she knows they actually don't exist."

"But they do!" Tom shouted, Naetle echoing his words. "Humans do exist!"

As Alice's eyes sparkled, Myga moaned. "Oh, she _corrupted_ them, Koga. How are we going to get the idea of humans out of their head?"

Koga chuckled. "Geez, Myga, you need to calm down. It's only some imaginary humans, it's not like its going to hurt them or anything."

Myga continued to fret. "Still…" She pinned Alice with a furious look. "You should stop sharing this, Alice. Pokemon will think you're weird or an idiot or something."

"Don't pokemon do that already?"

"That doesn't make what you're doing any better, Alice!"

"But it's only a legend, Myga! No harm done!"

"Legend? You have an entire parallel history lined up for them! You have extensive notes on their biology! Legend - yeah right!"

"B-but humans are real!" For the first time ever since he had woken up as a Litwick, Tom felt vestiges of something more. He couldn't recognize it, but somehow it made everything feel a little more unreal.

Myga opened her mouth to educate Tom on exactly how wrong he was being. Before she could say anything she had her mouth clamped down on by Koga. "Anyway," Koga began, "we have to go get our assignment, remember?"

Myga nodded. "Yeah, we've wasted enough time here."

Koga continued. "Alice, you got to say hi to your little protege, so can we please leave?"

Alice nodded and kicked back while relaxing on the air. "Yeah, I've had my fun."

"Then we're leaving. Come on, team." With that, Team Zelda left the Amphitheatre. Before they exited the room, though, Koga turned back to Tom.

"Oh, and Tom? Thanks for the Link Box - we're making good use of it." With that, they alone in the Amphitheatre.

The rest of the team was silent for a while, giving Tom a lot of time to think about what happened. Even as his team managed to pull themselves from their thoughts, he couldn't help but think of what he had learned.

Humans… he knew that they weren't around Naixe. He had yet to see any reference or recollection of them in the general populace. Tom never thought about his past, where he was before waking up on top of Castle Rock. He knew that he was a human, and that was pretty much it.

Why hadn't he been thinking about that? How had he accepted being a Litwick without complaint or question? It was easy to think of himself now as a living candle, given that he had been so for a month. But it had felt easy anyway, since the very beginning. After a few minutes of disbelief, he had come to accept his transformation. _He never even bothered questioning it_!

Tom stared down at the white and waxy appendages, which waved as they walked to the Mission Office. While he didn't have any memories of being a human, he had a clear picture in his mind of what they were like. They were tall by Pokemon standards - a hairless monkey except for the top and fronts of their head. He remembered that they built cities like the medieval Jeden City. They were much more advanced in their technology, though.

Tom _knew_ that he should be freaking out. He _knew_ that the fact that his mind decided to throw out any remnants of humanity should concern him. Yet he couldn't muster the effort to actually care.

Tom resolved to talk to Alice and Naetle about this later. They could tell him more - Naetle reacted as much as he had during the initial mention.

After the long walk from the Amphitheatre, they stepped into the Mission Office. Captain Falcon stood in his wicker chair and looked at them with a strange serenity. Milla was glaring daggers at them for some reason.

"Ah, Team Ness? Ready for your first day on the job?"

They were all silent, none of them daring to open their mouths.

Falcon chuckled. "Nervous, eh? Don't worry, you'll do fine. For now, you're too inexperienced to handle a serious mission. You'll be tagging along with Team Link for today - Tom and Glacia, you two are already acquainted with them?"

Tom and Glacia nodded, Glacia with a smile on her face.

Captain Falcon clapped his hands together in joy. "Wonderful! I always like it when my Teams get along well." He then winked. Tom felt sick.

Captain Falcon reached under his desk and pulled out a clipboard of papers. He removed two of the papers and handed them over to Glacia. "These are two missions to Platinum Canyon. You'll be splitting the jobs with Team Link to gain experience. The exact divisions will be up to you. Details are on the paper!" He stood up with a smile. "Dismissed!"

* * *

"Hi, guys!" Peng waved to Team Ness as they entered the main lobby. "Hope you guys are ready for your first official mission!" The other members looked over at them, deep and dark bags hidden in their eyes. Rokka, the Krokorok, gave him a look telling him that he should have moved faster. Nonetheless, he remained quiet.

Gel was morose, only looking at them for a second before staring back at the ground. Looking at Gel's unhappy face, Tom realized that Gel had a few new scars spotting his body.

Kol gave them a look over, his frame tense. "Hello, Team Ness." His eyes grew cold over Merla's form. Merla glared in return. "It's nice to see you all whole-hearted and well." Kol sighed. "I apologize if I seem on edge. We've had a… busy week. Peng deciding that she was going to volunteer for the exam wasted some of our valuable time." He shot a half-hearted glare at Peng, who responded with a cheerful grin.

Kol shook his head. "Either way, we need to get a move on. We'll be doing two missions in the Platinum Canyon today. You should mentally prepare yourselves if you haven't already."

Tom and the rest of Team Ness affirmed what Kol said, and Kol turned to the doors. "Right - onward."

* * *

Team Link was sedate as they traipsed forward into the grassy yet soggy hills. The glum mood soon carried over into Team Ness, and they too sagged. The weight of the past few days weighed down hard on Tom's mind. He missed Vinia and Shift, even though he knew Vinia was in the medical ward with Ms. Kiss. He still didn't know where Shift worked. He knew that Shift had to generate power for the base, but he didn't know where.

Yet it wasn't only that.

Tom recognized that strange black mist that had appeared at the tournament. He didn't remember from where exactly, but the mist had awakened a strange feeling in him.

It was of… _brotherhood_. Like the mist was an old friend that he had reunited with. Tom felt a bond with the mist grow, and it remained even with what happened to him.

He tried to help Glacia up due to her sudden collapse during their battle. He had another reason for approaching her, though. He also felt like he needed to inspect the mist he felt a kinship with.

That… was a mistake. As soon as he touched the mist, it seeped into him, blackening his wax. The mist, once it was inside him, tried to _drag_ something out. Tom resisted - somehow, he knew that once the mist dragged what it wanted out, something would change.

He wouldn't like it, either.

Vinia saved him, though, and expunged the mist. Of course, there was a strange dark patch in his wax that remained from the attack. The mist fascinated yet scared him so, mystifying Tom. Shaking his head, Tom brought himself back to the trek.

The gloominess of the wet hills pressed upon him from all sides. The journey to Platinum Canyon felt like forever, even though it lasted only an hour or two. The rest of Team Ness looked as entrenched in their own thoughts as he was. They had varying degrees of happiness, though.

Merla was, as usual, surly. She glared especially hard toward Kol. Tom could tell that the two would never be particularly close friends, if at all. When she wasn't glaring at Kol, she was shooting strange looks at him and Naetle. All in all, Merla confused him like she usually did

Glacia, though, was much more cheerful. Of course, the mood served to dampen her spirits somewhat, but for the most part, she was cheery and chipper. Peng wrapped her in a deep conversation about the test scores. Tom almost envied their ability to not mull things over.

Naetle… Naetle was silent. Ever since the chant, he refused to speak, only responding to the human argument he and Alice had with Myga. Naetle wouldn't meet his eyes, even when Tom asked him what was up. Tom would have to talk to him later today.

Yeah… Vinia, Alice, Naetle… he had a lot of pokemon he needed to talk to.

* * *

They finally reached the Platinum Canyon. Giant silver crags loomed in front of the teams, making Tom feel a little small.

Kol faced both of the teams in a regal stance and surveyed them all. Merla glared at him hard as his eyes passed over her, yet he didn't flinch.

"Alright, we're splitting into teams. Two pokemon from each team will form a four-pokemon squad to tackle one of the missions. We have a rescue mission directed to the general dungeon. We also have a pesky outlaw that has reportedly decided to use this Dungeon as a resting place."

Before anyone could say anything, Rokka immediately decided to make his opinion known. "I'm not going anywhere with the bratty 'princess'. You guys can figure out the rest - wake me when you've figured it out, I'm taking a nap." Then without any further warning, he nodded off to sleep.

"Uh…" Kol looked unsure of himself for a second, before pulling himself out of it. "Okay, so I won't pair Glacia and Rokka together. Any other opinions or requests for their team?"

"Pair me with Glacia, and not with _you_ ," Merla said at once, irritated eyes filling with malice.

Kol was silent for a few seconds. Then he sighed. "Alright, sure. Are there any objections to that?" There were none. "Alright, I've decided the teams."

Naetle's eyes widened. "Wait, what?"

Kol gave him an unimpressed look. "Two pokemon from each team per squad… Naetle, was it?" Naetle gave him a terse nod. "Well, we have the position of four members already established - Merla and Glacia on one team, Rokka and I on the other. That leaves you and Tom to come with us, while Peng and Gel go with the other two. Understand?"

We nodded. Kol handed Glacia a copy of one of the missions. "Glacia, as team leader, you'll have to guide your team in future missions. You'll have partial control over my team, and I'll have partial control over your team. After the mission, Gel and Peng will score you on your efficacy."

Kol stepped out of the way and gestured to the dungeon's entrance. "You guys will go first. Since we have separate missions, we will be separate ourselves. Team 1, which will be you guys, will go first."

Glacia nodded, and the four of them (Glacia, Peng, Merla, and Gel) headed through the dungeon.

"... and now we wait."

* * *

After thirty or so minutes, Kol judged it was high time they get started with their own mission. They were taking the outlaw mission. Kol made sure they knew the proper procedure. They were to beat the outlaw to unconsciousness, feed them some Doom Seeds, and hit them on the head to be sure. They then tie the outlaw up so hard that there was no chance of escape. Tom felt that it was a little excessive, but he didn't make the rules.

Naetle grumbled like he usually did. In class, if he didn't agree with something, he was very vocal about it. Well, he was at first. Mrs. Gaw gave him so many detentions that Tom had to wonder when Naetle managed to find the time to train.

The detentions managed to get through to Naetle once it was clear that protesting wasn't going to work. Mrs. Gaw wasn't going to take it to the top, no matter what. The outlaw procedures weren't something Captain Falcon had devised anyway. Unlike other questionable things in Jeden City, it was a practice around other Bases.

Nonetheless, Naetle protested. "It isn't right - we should incapacitate them, so they won't be able to escape. We shouldn't _knock them unconscious_!"

Kol gave Naetle an unimpressed look. "Do you plan on making your every opponent run away in fear, Naetle? Do you think that the outlaws will wake up and decide that they should remain as convicts?"

Naetle looked a little flustered. "I… well… they'd be too afraid to run away, for fear of worse retribution! They're scared and hurt - once they're caught, they won't fight too hard!"

Kol shot Naetle with a hard stare. "Do you think outlaws are cowards, Naetle? Do you think that they'd break the law for the fun of it?"

Naetle didn't reply, yet his silence was telling

Kol's look turned unimpressed again, and he sighed. "Look, even if _you're_ a coward, that doesn't mean that _they_ will be."

Naetle looked dumbstruck. Tom went in to defend him. "Naetle isn't a coward! He has a higher faith in outlaws!" Even as Tom said that, Henka flashed through his mind. Even a month later he still haunted him. The word 'outlaw' was all it took to bring him to mind.

Kol looked disappointed. "Even with all you've been through? You still think that Naetle is right in his assumption? That outlaws break the law for the fun of it, that at heart they're cowards?"

"Y-yes." He lied, the words stuck in my throat. "I… believe him."

The disappointment grew. "I now see that regardless of experience you two are still naive and cowardly. You'll have to watch us during our capture, Naetle. You too, Tom. You've forgotten how dangerous an outlaw can be - today will serve as a good reminder."

The four of them, including the now awake but grumpy Rokka, traveled through the Dungeon. Tom was beginning to become somewhat desensitized to Mystery Dungeons. He had gone through three already without any major consequences. It had left him somewhat confident, although that confidence may be misplaced.

* * *

(Platinum Canyon 1F)

Platinum Canyon was full of Steel and Rock types. Nosepass, Aron, Solrock, Lunatone, and their ilk dotted the landscape. Kol divided the team based on type advantage, and he made sure they knew that. While they were walking, Kol told Team Ness he wanted them to relay to Glacia the strategies.

"While your earlier strategies might have been usable, there is always a stronger foe. You four need to learn to conserve your energies and pick the right battles. Remember, Mystery Dungeons throw foes at you to slow you down and tire you. Fighting every enemy you come across is tantamount to playing the Mystery Dungeon's game."

"So you're saying we shouldn't fight the enemies?" Tom asked, bewildered, before blasting a Solrock they came across with an Astonish. Afterward, Tom felt winded

"No, I'm saying that you shouldn't fight every single battle," Kol replied, irritated. "Pick and choose your battles, and pay attention to Type advantage. It hasn't mattered that much until now for you, as your attacks have been so weak that they might as well be any type. Once you get to our level, though, they start mattering much more."

Rokka decided to interject after hitting an Aron with some heavy Mud Slaps. "Yeah, well, that only applies so far itself. If you ever get to the level of the Ring Breakers, you'll leverage your skills for strength rather than your type. Remember Henka, Tom? He's on that level."

Naetle, who had been silent, interrupted after using some Razor leaves to take down a Nosepass. "Henka?"

Before anyone from Team Link could respond, they reached the Staircase. Team Link climbed onto the Staircase instead of answering Naetle's question. Naetle huffed.

* * *

(Platinum Canyon 2F)

"Henka? You wanted to know who he was, Naetle?" Kol asked as they continued to traipse through the Dungeon. Naetle nodded to the question. "Well, I'm a little surprised that Tom didn't tell you. It's a rather harrowing and exciting experience for someone your age."

Naetle looked over to Tom in askance. Tom shrugged before hitting a Beldum that had tried to sneak up on the group with an Ember. "It never came up. When was I supposed to say, 'an outlaw kidnapped me and Glacia'?"

Naetle began to make choking sounds. "At some point!"

"Oh. Well, yeah, an outlaw kidnapped me and Glacia when we first met. Along with a shiny Vanillite girl, Henka planned to sell us off for some money. But we rescued ourselves and Team Link, who was after Henka for a mission or something, beat him up."

Naetle was nodding his head. "Yeah, I get it now. He's in prison now, and you guys had to come work off your… _debt,_ " Naetle spat, "at the Base?"

"Well, we had to pay off the debt, yeah, but Henka escaped the night afterward. Somehow he managed to escape his icy prison and run away."

They had reached the third floor's Staircase. After scrambling onto the Staircase, they were on the third floor.

* * *

(Platinum Canyon 3F)

"Icy prison?"

Tom sighed. "Yeah, ice prison. Look, do you want me to explain it to you in full, Naetle?" Naetle nodded with excitement.

As they traveled through Platinum Canyon, Tom told Naetle the full details the day. He told Naetle about waking up on the top of Castle Rock and rolling down the slippery slope. He told Naetle how Henka kidnapped him, and how he found himself next to Strawberry. Tom told him with the rest of the details. He included the escape, the capture, the Twisting, the Monster House, and the Araquanid.

After he finished, Naetle raised an eyebrow. "Wow, that's kind of impressive. I could see you and Glacia managing to beat that Araquanid now." Naetle then adopted another look of confusion. "But what do you mean, 'he ran away'? You froze him in ice - I don't think you can escape from that."

"We don't know how he escaped, only that he did. We don't have anyone that can… shed some light… on the situation, either." Kol answered while zapping a Zubat that had come to close for comfort. "We only know what happened afterward."

Tom felt a chill crawl down his back. "W-what do you mean? Henka's still at large, isn't he?"

Rokka, who had been silent until then, answered. "Yeah, brat, but he hasn't stopped what he's doing. As we speak, he's kidnapping Pokemon and selling them off."

Tom felt himself turn green if that was possible as a Litwick. Naetle, though, turned a bleached white and started muttering. It was too fast for Tom to catch its entirety, but Tom heard names like "Azurill", "Drowzee", and "Skull" thrown about.

Rokka frowned. "And he didn't forget about us, Tom. He especially didn't forget about the pokemon who captured him in the first place - Gel."

The chill ran down his back again. "What do you mean?"

They had reached the Staircase, but it only registered deep in Tom's mind. He was completely focused on the conversation at hand.

Kol, sorrow dancing around in his eyes, answered. "Henka took his revenge against Gel. He kidnapped Strawberry again."

The chill solidified into ice as Naetle gasped. "W-what happened?"

"One day, Gel returned to his home to find that Strawberry was missing. By asking the pokemon who had last seen her, we found out that a 'Dragonite' carried her away. We knew what that meant." Kol cast his downtrodden eyes toward the Staircase. "The missing Strawberry has been worrying Gel sick for the last couple of weeks. He's been losing sleep - you saw him, right?"

Naetle seemed to have found his voice again. "W-we'll find her. We'll help bring her back home!"

Kol and Rokka refused to meet Naetle's eyes.

Tom found his voice activating. "We won't lose hope - I won't lose hope, not until I see Strawberry in front of me. We _will_ save her - you'll see!"

The group had gone silent after Tom had made the declaration. Naetle's mouth was open, his eyes shining. Then a resolve crept into his eyes, a resolve that put Tom's to shame.

"Right!" Together, Tom and Naetle looked at Rokka and Kol.

Rokka snarled and huffed at them, while Kol rolled his eyes. "That's alright with us. But in case you have forgotten," Kol gestured to the rickety Staircase, "we have a different outlaw to capture right now."

* * *

(Platinum Canyon 4F)

"Alright, squad, we're on the floor where the outlaw is. Once we find the outlaw, we'll capture them, tie them up or encase them, then carry them through the dungeon until the end. This is another small outlaw, a Corsola, so we won't need any special bonds, only some weights tied to their feet. Got it?

Naetle and Tom nodded, with reluctance.

"If you can't take your opponent down and knock them unconscious, then leave the final blow to one of us, got it Naetle?"

Naetle nodded. "Am I going to take the Corsola on alone?"

As they walked through the corridors of the fourth floor, Kol answered. "You and Tom will be the ones to take on the Corsola - especially you, considering you have a double type advantage. This is your Mission, after all - we're only helping. We'll take the Corsola if you can't, but we'll expect you to be able to take on this small-timer. "

They came to a fork in the corridor and stopped. "To cover more ground, we'll split up. Naetle and Tom will go together, while Rokka and I will go together. If you two find the outlaw, defeat and capture them or signify us. If Rokka and I find the outlaw, we'll come for you two so you can fight them instead. Understand?"

Tom and Naetle assented. Kol signaled Rokka to follow him, then left through one of the paths.

* * *

In the tunnels, Tom walked with Naetle, chatting under his breath. It was an inane chatter, but he couldn't help but avoid serious topics. His earlier bravado had left him, leaving him with a sinking feeling in his stomach.

He felt that Naetle knew this too. The chatter between the two died away in the echoing caverns.

They walked in silence, the earlier unity gone. Without the link of Glacia, they couldn't find any two points to connect.

The silence culminated when they reached a dead end. There were no further corridors to go through.

Tom's voice rasped open. "We… should head back."

Naetle nodded, a sorrowful look smeared on his face. "Yeah."

Something about Naetle's face triggered something within Tom. He soon found words spilling out of his mouth. "Naetle… you look a little sad."

Naetle plastered on a fake smile. "Nah, I'm alright."

Tom couldn't help but see that as a lie. "You know, Naetle, I… if you have any problems, you're free to tell me."

Naetle's smile began to crumble like dirt into dust. "I… I'm… you wouldn't believe me. Not after what Myga said earlier today."

Myga? What did she… oh.

Tom decided to reveal what he had been harboring. "I'm a human, Naetle."

Naetle's breath caught as he gasped. "W-what?" Despite Naetle's visible shock, Tom could see vestiges of hope forming on his face.

"There's one thing I remember from before I was a Litwick, Naetle - I remember being a human. It was why I found it so hard to move as a Litwick - I was only a human beforehand."

Hope continued to blossom on his face until something shut it down. "Describe one."

Tom blinked. "What?"

"Describe a human to me, Tom. I want to see whether you can describe one."

Tom sighed. "Uh, sure. Humans are weird bipedal creatures. It's a bit like a cross between a Machoke and a Gardevoir. We have muscles like a Fighting-Type, Pecha-colored skin, and hair on our heads."

Tom would have continued, had a weeping Naetle not Tackled him. Tom was a little worried until he realized that Naetle was smiling.

"You… are you Sky?" Naetle asked his face pleading, begging.

"Sky?" The heartbreak on Naetle's face was devastating.

Naetle stepped backward and got off Tom. "I… it was too much to expect that you would be Sky, huh. I…" Inspiration flashed across Naetle's face. He raced over to one of the walls and picked up one of the pieces of rubble with his mouth and brought it over to Tom.

"Pick it up and concentrate hard on it, Tom," Naetle commanded.

"Um… what?" Tom felt a little confused but decided to humor Naetle's odd request. He picked up the random piece of rubble and concentrated hard.

As Tom expected, a whole lot of nothing occurred. He continued to concentrate hard on the piece of rubble. He tried to probe its deepest mysteries.

The anticipatory look on Naetle's face fell away to crushing disappointment.

"It… was too much to expect, wasn't it?"

Tom nodded with regret. "You were expecting something, weren't you?"

"I… thought that you would be able to activate the Dimensional Scream."

Tom blinked. "The Dimensional Scream?"

"The Dimensional Scream is a prophetic ability only Sky, my partner, had. He could see important things related to what he was holding in the past or future only by touching it and concentrating."

Something clicked in Tom's mind. "He had clairvoyance?"

Naetle nodded. "Yeah, his visions crossed time and space. It would work with anything, as long as he concentrated on it hard enough. You… don't have it, Tom."

The fact didn't surprise Tom. "Well, we'll have to tell Glacia and Merla when we get back to the base." Something sparked in Tom's mind. "Hey, weren't we supposed to catch on outlaw?"

"Uh… yeah."

There was an EEP behind them, and Naetle spun around. A Corsola appeared out of nowhere. Their appearance etched a look of horror on her face - Tom assumed it was a girl.

"I… I heard nothing!" Suffice it to say, Tom was not fooled.

* * *

(Back at the Base)

Taking out the Corsola was easy. The Corsola put up a token fight and her Regenerator ability made the battle asinine. It seemed, though, her real strength was a talent with Camouflage.

Drop a couple of Embers here and there, to keep track of air flow, Tom ripped that from her as well.

Tom and Naetle brought back a trussed-up and struggling Corsola to the crossroads. Once Kol and Rokka saw the captured Coral Pokemon, they breathed a sigh of relief.

"Well, that's some skin off our backs. We'll bring her straight to the Base, so we can cart her off to Night's prison."

Corsola immediately stopped struggling. "Night's prison! Are you serious?! Great!" All eyes were on Corsola. "I mean, uh, oh no. Not Night's Prison." Corsola resumed her struggle.

Tom wondered why Corsola would be happy to go to prison. After all, weren't prisons supposed to be miserable?

Kol coughed. "Corsola, Night won't give you the V.I.P. treatment. You'd have to impress or interest Night to get that sort of recognition, criminal or not. If you don't, I'm pretty sure it'll be like any other drab prison." Corsola, who had perked up, drooped back down again.

Naetle had a look of intrigue etched on his face. "Night is… a local prison warden, right? What do you mean by V.I.P. treatment?"

Rokka snorted. "Night's a Gardevoir, which means that she's all lovey-dovey and stuff. She says that if we give prisoners joy, they'll become good pokemon or something, like a miracle." Rokk scoffed. "No one should have ever given the idiot control over a prison."

There was a large crackling in the air at this point. Kol had an aura of raw electricity around him, his eyes sheathed in malice. Rokka gulped.

"Rokka, as your Team Leader, I… suggest… you don't talk about our esteemed warden like that." The tips of Kol's claws glittered. "You would regret it."

Rokka shut up.

They passed through all three of the remaining floors without incident. Once they went outside, they found the rest of Team Link and Team Ness waiting outside for them. Glacia told them the psychic who assigned the missions had gotten the floor number wrong. They found the missing Roggenrola on the fifth floor rather than the fourth floor.

The Roggenrola (Granite) had decided that the inside of a Mystery Dungeon was a great place to play. He still wanted to go inside too, and wasn't afraid of the Dungeon.

Anger and frustration were palpable on the other squad's face. Peng and Glacia had a ticked off look on their face. Merla was looking murderous. Gel was apoplectic with rage.

Gel's attitude was in such stark contrast to his demeanor a month ago that Tom wasn't sure it was the same pokemon. Strawberry's disappearance must have made more of a difference than Tom thought.

They made it back to the Base, tugging along a chatty Granite. Once they arrived, some Magnemite apprehended the Corsola. Captain Falcon pronounced a job well done

Then Team Ness found themselves back in their base.

"... alright, Team, let's go to bed." Glacia commanded, looking stressed and tired beyond belief. Naetle, though, coughed.

"Uh, Glacia? We found out some important things during our mission today. You guys might like to know."

Glacia gave Naetle an exasperated look. "Can it wait until morning?"

"... no?"

Glacia, with an irritated sigh, allowed Naetle to continue, Merla listening in as well.

Naetle described what had happened in the Dungeon. Glacia looked intrigued, the stress having relieved itself.

"So, you're saying that Tom is a human?" Glacia glared at Tom. Tom gave a timid little shrug. "Anything else that you've forgotten to tell me, Tom?"

"Um… nothing important."

Glacia stared at him. "You know, you have to reassess what's important and what's not, Tom." With that cryptic statement, she turned to Naetle. "Your partner has the 'Dimensional Scream'? Does an ability like that exist?"

Naetle nodded without hesitation. Glacia grinned. "Well, that sounds excellent. Once we get used to this whole Venturing thing, Merla and I will be spending our time in the library researching. You two, since you seem to believe in these things so much, will be handling non-academic research. I know how bad you two are at researching with a book." Despite herself, Glacia chuckled.

Those chuckles soon turned into a pained frown and a pensive look appeared on Glacia's face. "Henka has kidnapped Strawberry again, huh?" There was no answer. "No wonder Gel was so cranky and irritated today. If someone kidnapped my brother or sister, I'd be tearing up the world to find them."

"Brother? Sister?" Tom asked, surprised.

"Yeah, I have a brother and a sister. Their names are Volt and Nymph, respectively. I try not to think about them because they pestered me more times than I can count. Still, if someone kidnapped them…" Glacia's silver eyes hardened. "They would pay."

Merla stepped forward. "Don't worry, Lady Glacia." A pained look appeared on Glacia's face. "My apologies, Glacia. Don't worry - we'll find that _despicable_ fiend that captured you two and Strawberry. I will _make sure_ he faces my justice."

Merla could get dangerous when she was protective.

Glacia offered a small smile. "Thank you, Merla. We'll find them, don't worry." She yawned. "But for now, let's get some sleep. We'll talk about this more in the morning."

So Tom bid the rest of Team Ness goodbye and headed off to train with Alice again.

Things were looking up.

* * *

"Hey, Corsola, guess what?" A monotonous voice rang out.

The Corsola, who had only been recently captured, turned to the blank-eyed Gallade. "Uhh… yeah?"

"Night has determined you have the chance to become a V.I.P. prisoner."

The depressed Corsola, who had been expecting a miserable prison stay, turned cheery. "Yes!" Then a confused look appeared across Corsola's face. "But why?"

"We read your mind when we put you in a holding cell, in case our teams retrieved the wrong Pokemon. You were guilty, as expected. Night, though, found some of the information in your head intriguing. She has decided that we will reward you because of it."

The Corsola looked interested. "What did I know? I don't think I knew anything interesting."

"You have no idea of the importance of humanity, do you?"


	12. 12 - A Different Viewpoint

(Vinia)

"Excuse me, ma'am?"

"Oh, yes?" The elderly Swanna asked, her eyes unfocused. When she saw me she smiled. "Juliet, dear, how have you been? It's been ages since I last saw you."

I shifted around, feeling a little shameful. The Swanna thought I was someone else. I didn't have it in me to correct her - she was so glad to see 'Juliet'.

"Ma'am, have you heard anything about a pokemon that has recently had amnesia. Someone who has forgotten their memory, or at least part of it?" I asked.

The Swanna frowned. "No, dear Juliet, I haven't." She then opened the door. "But please, come inside. I have some of those meat pies you like."

Forcing a bit of vomit back down my throat, I put on a smile. "No, ma'am. I'm doing something else." Then without further warning, I teleported to another street and threw up.

Meat pies… uh… I'm sure I'd like one of those as a carnivore, but… no. _No_.

Who knew that helping Naetle and Tom look for that 'Sky' guy would be so distressing?

It's been a month since the graduation exam and the large tournament. I've been working with Ms. Kiss the entire time. She's been a hard taskmaster, much harder than she was when I was volunteering.

Before I had to learn the placements and uses of some salves and potions. Now I had to learn how to make them, as well as their effect on every part of the body. Not to mention the biology of the various pokemon of the base and all those not in the base.

And that wasn't including all the practice she was making me do in for all the healing techniques. Heal Pulse is only the first step and is only a general heal. For stronger heals, you'll need to use Wish. For more precise heals, you'd need a more precise Heal Pulse than the general kind.

There was also Heal Bell and Refresh and… well, I'm sure I'll learn more later.

I've decided to ignore the Hippopotacratic Oath and strengthen my fighting skills. Like Distortion, I'm going to let all the hard work I put into my training go to waste!

With a lot of extra time, my training has been fruitful. I've been able to learn and master the Magical Leaf and Draining Kiss attacks. That's brought my repertoire of attacks up to four.

Magical Leaf lets me control leaves with psychic power and throw them at enemies like a Razor Leaf. Of course, there are a couple of differences between it and Razor Leaf. I can redirect Magical Leaf and set in a new direction, bit Razor Leaf is as straight as a Honedge's blade. In return, Razor Leaf was much faster than Magical Leaf was.

Draining Kiss acts like a fairy-typed leech in my enemy's body. It drains them of their vitality and strength. Of course, I have to get somewhat close to the enemy to use it. Not to mention the fact I have to make a vague kissing face toward whoever I was draining from.

I don't plan on using Draining Kiss that much - it makes me feel a little dirty. Of course, now that I'm aware of the Miasma, any fairy type move will be a boon.

I'll need it considering the fight the rest of the guys have roped me into.

* * *

A couple of days after the graduation exam, I was working hard but was miserable. The days were both exciting and a slog. I was learning new and exciting healing techniques, which was a plus. Without the others, though, I was feeling a little alone as I didn't have anyone to talk to other than Ms. Kiss. (I've gotten over not becoming a Venturer - I didn't particularly like Mystery Dungeons anyway).

I was despondent - had my friends moved on without me? I didn't see Shift anymore - he lived in a completely different part of the Base and didn't cross paths with me. But what about all my other friends? What about Glacia, Merla, Naetle, and _Tom_? Ms. Kiss told me they passed, as she had heard the word from the grapevine, but then why didn't they come to talk to me?

Then Tom came into the medical ward looking a little banged up for a little reason. His first words to me?

"Sorry, I was a little late."

As I healed up the slap wound I gave Tom three seconds later, I chewed him out.

"I can't believe you guys! You guys don't even come to tell me that you've graduated! How can I stay calm when you've decided to leave me behind!" I felt the beginnings of tears forming, but I pushed them back with a vengeance. Not going to let Tom see that, no siree.

"I… uh… we've been busy?" My eye ticked.

"Busy? You don't need to sleep, Tom? What have you been doing that's so important you can't spend ten minutes to calm and talk to me.

Knowing biology is useful sometimes.

"I… uh…" As I expected, Tom didn't have an answer for me. I felt a current of sadness run through me - Tom felt the need to _lie_ to me. Me! I've been nothing but trustworthy!

"It's… you know how Glacia is a time traveler?" Tom asked with trepidation.

"Yes?" I asked with a note of anger.

"So is Naetle."

"... what?"

"Naetle is a time traveler too, Vinia." Tom let out a sigh, and he looked like he took more damage from him admitting that than from when I slapped him.

"... You're kidding. Is _everyone_ a time-traveler?"

Tom shook his head, frantic. "No! Merla didn't and you didn't! I don't think I didn't!" OF course, worry then _had_ to write itself across Tom's face, followed by exasperation. "Vinia, it's better if you hear it from the mouths of the others. I'm bad at explaining things."

I nodded, then told Ms. Kiss, who was busy in another room, that I was going out for a small while. She waved me off, dispassionate, and we then left.

* * *

I then learned about everything else. Naetle's true past, Tom's hidden 'humanity', and the kidnapping of a girl named Strawberry had shocked me. Wanting to help, I joined Tom and Naetle on their reconnaissance missions. We went around asking for any information about Strawberry or Naetle's old partner.

Of course, by week two, we realized that no one in Jeden actually knew anything. Even knowing that we had to press on. We had to hold hopes that one of the citizens forgot to tell the Venturers what had happened that day.

Two weeks after that, and we've found out nothing.

Walking down the street I had teleported onto, I considered what we were going to do next. I don't think Ms. Kiss would know anything. With Glacia and Merla handling the academic research, we had nothing to do

I checked one of the pearly sundials dotted around Jeden. A quick glance told me that it was 6, and judging by the color of the sky it was already sunset. It was time to meet with Naetle and Tom at the square.

Teleporting there, I waited. Sure enough, three minutes later Tom and Naetle showed up, sweating and panting. We moved to a more private location (we learned how to do that the hard way. Ghosts are unpopular in Jeden, surprise surprise).

Once we were out of sight, Tom put his foot down. "Okay, we're not getting anywhere, and I'm tired of spying on other pokemon."

I sighed, aggravated. "Tom, you have to spy on them because they're not going to tell you the information anyway." I then let out an annoyed huff. "But you're right - we've been asking around for a month, and it hasn't worked at all. We need some new way of going about this. There's no information about Strawberry or Henka anywhere."

Naetle turned to me, annoyed. "I've told you once, Vinia, and I'll tell you again. Once we find Sky, we'll be able to use the Dimensional Scream. We won't need to wait around to find things out then."

I took a deep breath to calm my raging heart. "What kind of pokemon is he, anyway? We've been looking for an amnesiac and a former human, but you haven't even told us what species he is!"

"A Piplup. Sky was a Piplup."

I blinked. "A Piplup?"

"A Piplup."

"Peng!" Naetle and I started at the overexcited Tom. "Peng is a Prinplup, right? What if she knows where Sky is!" Tom looked very eager and proud of his hypothesis.

I've been a lot more vigilant, I'd like to imagine, with my anger issues toward Tom. But now, all I can feel towards Tom is an insatiable ire.

"Tom… do you think everyone in the same evolution family knows each other?"

Tom's grin fell. "I… I thought that…"

I sighed, then continued. "But it's the best idea we have so far, Tom. Anyway, Peng might know where Sky would go. Naetle will talk with her tonight."

Tom and Naetle brightened up. "That's great!" Naetle cheered, smiling. Then he adopted a confused look. "But why shouldn't you guys come as well?"

I took the chance to explain with relish. "Neither Tom nor I usually come to dinner, remember? We're going to have to phrase the question right- no one other than us knows that Naetle is a time traveler. If Tom and I come, it'll look suspicious. Suspicion can leak the secret."

Tom looked concerned. "Has anything else leaked the secret?"

I sighed. "Tom, the Base knows that Glacia is a time traveler."

"What!?"

"Ms. Kiss told me. You guys told someone in Team Link that secret a few months ago, and further evidence kept piling up. One overheard conversation later and Captain Falcon knew everything. He told Ms. Kiss, Ms. Kaili, and Mr. Pix and the rest of the staff, I presume. Ms. Kiss told me herself."

Both of their faces were paling. It seemed to me they were finally getting the gist of it - the Base knew a lot more than they let on.

Tom gulped. "Okay, but then what if Naetle doesn't know what to say?"

Naetle shook his head. "Don't worry, Tom. I'll figure something out. Peng is nice right?" At Tom's fervent nod, he continued. "She'll tell us if we ask, I'm sure. All I have to do is catch her and avoid the rest of the team."

I frowned a little bit. "Why the rest of the team?"

Naetle explained with a note of sadness in his voice. "While Kol is nice and all, he's loyal to Captain Falcon. He'll tell Captain Falcon I'm another time traveler."

Nobody doubted him - not on this.

I looked at the sun, which had almost completely fallen under the horizon. "Well, if you want to ask her tonight, Naetle, you might want to go to dinner now. It's almost night time."

Naetle whipped around to see the setting sun, then ran as fast as possible to the base. Tom began to follow him, but I held him back. "Don't worry Tom, I'm sure he has it under control," I said, listless.

Tom frowned at me. "Vinia, what's the matter with you? You seem… different."

I sighed. "I don't know, Tom. It was could be the meat pies."

"The what?"

"Never mind. I'm … I'll be back to normal soon enough." The Bag I was holding seemed to get heavier, and I realized what was going to happen if I left the Bag alone.

Inside the Bag, there was an Everstone. A couple of days ago, I started feeling a little sick, and I couldn't recognize the symptoms. Consulting with Ms. Kiss led me to realize I was going to evolve soon.

She then handed me an Everstone and gave me a choice. I could take the Everstone, keep it with me wherever I go, and I would delay my evolution. If I didn't take the Everstone, I would be very close to evolving, and any show of emotional strength could set me off.

While others would take joy in the idea of evolution, I don't think I'm ready yet.

There are personality changes when you evolve. I've researched the ones for my evolutionary line. The energy and eagerness of a Kirlia replace the shyness and reluctance of a Ralts. That energy is then turned to serenity and grace when evolving into a Gardevoir.

I'm not ready to mess with my personality, not until I'm sure the most important parts will remain. Evolution can cause an onset of amnesia. While rare, that has its chances increased as I hang out with my friends.

I'll do a little research on the side, and see what I can do to further cut the chances of amnesia. Once I'm confident that my important parts will be safe, I'll evolve.

Until then…

"Don't worry, Tom. I'll be back to… normal, soon enough."

Then there was an explosion in another street. Any thoughts on evolution, time travel, or amnesia fled.

After a few seconds, most of the citizens of Jeden went back to normal. It seemed this was a somewhat common occurrence around here, buildings exploding. Or was it that specific building exploding?

"Let's… go check that out." I commanded Tom. Tom seemed eager to do something productive. He nodded and started moving as fast as possible toward the epicenter of the explosion. I followed him shortly after checking the Everstone, which gained a bright glow.

Now it would make a nice nightlight if I ever needed one.

After tailing Tom, I found myself in a strange building called 'Electricals'. The fire in the building was being put out by a frantic and manic Vikavolt.

"No, no, no! Not again! Why do I always forget to build fire protection in my inventions!" The Vikavolt fumed. "This is the third time this week!"

Tom was busy rescuing the inventions that scattered everywhere, pulling them outside. I decided to make it go a little quicker by using my Teleport.

Many Teleports later, we dumped all the Vikavolt's belongings outside. The Vikavolt dumped some water on the rest of the fire, putting it out and leaving the inside of the shop steaming.

The Vikavolt began to calm down. "Oh… Oh dear…" The Vikavolt, looking tired sat down. "Another batch of inventions, gone with the ashes."

I peeked into the shop. Sure enough, the Vikavolt's inventions were a heap of slag on the ground. It convulsed and oozed, creeping me out.

The Vikavolt began to hug himself and rock back and forth in the air. "What am I going to do… What am I going to do…?" He chanted on a loop, looking out of it.

Tom crept up on the Vikavolt and poked him on the shoulder. The Vikavolt gasped and started discharging electricity. It hit Tom with a few stray bolts. Tom winced but spoke with serenity.

"Kavol, do you need help?"

Something in Tom's voice was soothing, even to Vinia. Soon enough, Kavol the Vikavolt was spilling his woes. "What am I going to do, Tom? The Conkeldurrs told me last time they won't rebuild my shop! I don't have anywhere to go now! Nobody will come here anymore!"

Tom raised his eyebrows."Did they come in the first place?"

I bit my lip. Tom's reasonable question was an awful consolation. Cold reason was the last thing you would want to use to help someone in hysteria. Well, barring outright attacking.

Sure enough, Kavol, angry, began to flail, knocking Tom back. I could sense his grief and anger from where I was standing. "That's not the point! My shop… my home… everything... ruined!"

I came forward before Tom could worsen the situation. Oh, his tone was helpful and concerned, but he didn't know what to say. "Mr. Kavol?"

"Y-yes?" Good, good, he's started off with affirmations.

"Do you have any of your inventions left?" Obvious answer, obvious answer, come on…

Kavol, panicked in response, began to check the pile of inventions that Tom and I brought out. "TMs, IQ Booster…" Kavol breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank Arceus, the most important ones are still safe."

Tom opened his mouth to talk, but I shut him up as fast as possible, giving him an evil eye. "Not now!" I hissed. Tom got the message and stepped back, giving me full control of the situation.

"You uh… do you have any relatives in Jeden City, Mr. Kavol?"

"No, I'm afraid I came here on my own." Kavol began to tug at his jaws. "Where am I going to live?!"

"I… uh… " Dang it, I was doing so well! Then he had to ask the hard questions, and he looks like he's going to go back to his hysteria.

"You can come to stay with us, Kavol, in our base! We can scrounge around for some beds, so you'll at least have some shelter and a place to sleep. Is that… alright?" Tom offered in a hurry, wringing his appendages. He offered a contrite glance, regretting his outburst. The proud smile I gave him set him in the opposite direction.

"You and your team would do that?" Kavol asked, not believing his good fortune in recovery.

Tom nodded with conviction. "Don't worry Kavol - we'll help you get back on your feet."

"B-but what about the shop? Where will I make money now? I-I didn't make much money before, but now I'll have no chance!"

A flash of inspiration struck me. "Kavol, you still have your inventions, right? Why don't you start selling them to make money?"

"That's what I did before! 'Electricals' was where I sold my wares. Nobody would come to buy them, though, so any money I made was paltry. And now that I don't have a store anymore, I can't make any money at all!" Kavol began to hyperventilate.

"Please, Mr. Kavol, calm down!" I found myself at his side and rub his exoskeleton in soothing circles. "We… we'll find a way!"

"O-Okay." The large Vikavolt began to sniffle, and I began to realize how surreal the experience was.

Tom then piped up. "Um… Kavol…? You can open up a vending stand in the middle of the street. If you get a permit to sell like that, I'm pretty sure you'll be able to make money again."

Yes! We had another solution. Sure enough, genuine hope began to blossom in Kavol's beady and buggy eyes.

"Yes… YES!" Kavol shot forward, rejuvenated, as I fell on my butt. "I have a _plan_. Thank you, Tom! Thank you… um…"

"Vinia, Mr. Kavol. My name is Vinia."

"Vinia! Thank you both!" He shot off into the pile of inventions. "Please, for helping me like this, take one of my inventions!"

Well, I wasn't one to look a gift Ponyta in the mouth. I rummaged in the pile with Tom as Kavol brought what remained out into the open. I'm surprised no one stole anything from Kavol. But if the explosion was any sign, Kavol's inventions weren't the safest around.

… can I decline the offer and say that I was only happy to help?

Tom, though, took no time in finding what he wanted. " Here it is!" He said, holding up a large bluish-gray box. "I found it - the IQ Booster!"

I coughed. "Uh, Tom, we should decline his offer. The reason this trouble happened in the first place is that Kavol's inventions tend to… explode."

Tom shook his head. "I've known Kavol for over a month. Kavol gave me a powerful Link Box when I first met him, and I want to see what this IQ Booster can do."

Link Box? "Tom, Kavol has started three fires in his shop in the past week - you heard him, right? Don't you think that the inventions might be a little dangerous."

Tom nodded. "Yeah, they're a little dangerous."

"So why-"

"Because I'm a Venturer, Vinia. I'm throwing myself into a Mystery Dungeon every day, I have a reduced sense of pain, and I am a _ghost_. I've pretty much lost the meaning of danger." Tom smiled. "And even though Kavol's inventions explode, I _trust_ him."

I sighed. I wasn't up for this right now. "Alright, alright." I went around picking up the lenses. Those didn't look like they were liable to explode. "What is this?"

"That's the Scope Lens. Kavol told me you can use it to find out somebody's weaknesses."

Intrigued, I put it on and stared at Tom. There were one or two glowing spots on his body, and his wick was radiating light.

"Hey Tom, according to these your wick is a giant weak spot."

Tom frowned. "I didn't know that," he remarked. "Try hurting my wick and see how much damage it does to me. Let's see if it _is_ weak."

"Uh… sure." Tom wasn't kidding when he said he had no sense of danger. I summoned a Magical Leaf from some tree in the city and sent it hurtling towards Tom's wick.

The leaf shaved a little bit of Tom's wick off. Tom winced and his appendages came up to protect his wick. "Yeah, okay, it's a weak spot. Ow…"

I took off the Scope Lens, a little surprised. I didn't actually expect for it to work so well. For a pokemon who made large explosions, something like this is unusual.

I looked at one of the other lenses. This one had a large eye on it, and something told me to put it on.

"Say, Tom, what is this?" I asked, holding up the lens.

"Oh, that? That's the Insomniscope. It prevents you from falling asleep from Sleep Powders."

My breath hitched. "Does it protect from Hypnosis?" I asked in a hurry.

"Oh, uh, yeah. I'm pretty sure it does that as well."

Kavol finally brought out the last of his belongings, which was only a little pile. "Have you two made your decisions yet?"

I nodded. "I'll take the Insomniscope, please." Wearing it would go a long way. I remembered… _that_ … quite well. Something to protect against Hypnosis would be helpful.

Kavol nodded. "And you, Tom?"

"I'll take the Scope Lens, actually."

I coughed. "Um… Tom? Weren't you going to take the IQ Booster, actually?"

Tom grinned. "Well, I've changed my mind."

Kavol took the scopes from within the pile and handed them over.

"Say, Kavol?" I asked, holding the Insomniscope within my hands. "What are the drawbacks to using the Insomniscope for long periods of time?"

"Glad you asked! Well, there are none on the mind - it wipes away all exhaustion and sleepiness, making you as fit as a fiddle. Using it for too long actually takes a toll on the body. Our body makes repairs and energizes itself when we go to sleep."

"And the Scope Lens?" Tom asked, concerned

"None at all! I would only suggest taking it off every hour or so to accustom your eyes to normal sight." Tom brightened at that and held up the Scope Lens like it was a valuable treasure.

"Well well! Are we going to your base?" Tom nodded. "Excellent! Let's be on our merry way." Kavol, when he's not breaking down, seemed rather eccentric and friendly. Somehow, I was growing fond of him.

So we made our way through the town, walking across the various storefronts. The Pokemon that we passed made various sounds of disapproval. That might have been because of Tom. Well, Kavol did break off our group to inspect the street corners we crossed every once in a while. That was weird.

"Hm… Hm… HMMM." After the tenth time, I couldn't hold in my curiosity anymore.

"Um, Mr. Kavol, what are you doing?" I asked, a little concerned about how Kavol was inspecting a particular speck of dust.

Kavol turned away from the corner, jovial. "Well, Vinia, I'm going to have to become a vendor, correct? That means I'll need a place to vend _from_! I'm looking for optimal locations. When I have recovered, I desire to peddle my electrifying inventions."

"Uh… alright." So it went on like this for quite some time. I felt myself get more and more embarrassed as time passed. Our arrival at the Base could not come fast enough.

Tom and I led Kavol, with his giant sack of inventions, up to Team Ness's base.

"Alright, Kavol? Everything to your liking?" Kavol nodded, already setting up his bed.

"Oh yes, yes. The ventilation is rather poor, but it is better than the magnificent nothing I had ten minutes ago!" Kavol pulled out some ingots of metal. "Do you know if there are any areas where I can resume building?"

"Um… be creative!" I could only say. Tom looked as stumped as I was. "We don't _have_ a place for you to work, so you'll have to find one yourself."

Kavol nodded. "Yes, yes, you two have done quite enough. If nothing else, I'll build myself a station to work outside of Jeden's walls. There I won't have to worry about the Captain's laws. Do you know where the storage rooms are, so that I may place my inventions inside?"

"Oh, yeah!" Tom nodded. "Do you want me to show you the way?"

"Yes, please!" Tom began to lead Kavol all the way to the storage rooms. With a sigh, I collapsed onto one of the beds. I felt rather sleepy actually. I would put on the Insomniscope soon, to get some dinner and go to bed, but for now, I'd relax on the straw nest.

"Vinia?" I cursed and got up from the bed. Not even a second's rest, huh.

"Yeah. Naetle?" I asked, a little out of it.

"You were sleeping on my bed. I came to wake you up."

Drat.

"Oh. How did your questioning go?"

"It, well…"

* * *

(Naetle)

I raced through Jeden City as fast as I could. I bumped into the occasional pokemon, who looked a little upset at the bump. I stopped every single time to apologize, of course; then I continued running.

I had to make it on time for dinner - we finally had a method of getting to Sky. Well, it was going to be a stretch at best, but it's better than nothing!

I jumped and skipped into the main lobby. All around me, Venturers chattered as they make their way to the cafeteria. Which means that I didn't miss dinner yet and that I could talk to Peng.

I weaved through the crowd as best as I could. Of course, my round Turtwig body isn't the best for this sort of thing, but I'm used to it. I know that I'm moving as fast as I can.

Finally, after ten minutes or barreling through the crows, I arrive at the cafeteria. I scan the room as fast as possible for Peng. I'm unable to find her, though - she doesn't seem to be here yet.

I take one of the seats where Team Ness usually sits so that I can look for Peng. I'll forgo dinner for tonight. I'm hungry, but I have something a little more important to worry about tonight.

After a few minutes of waiting, Glacia and Merla come to the table and sit down.

"Hey, Naetle, how did today's investigation go?" Glacia asked me the question, already digging into her bowl for unidentifiable meat. She didn't expect an answer, I could tell. Nonetheless, I was in such a good mood that I decided to answer her.

"Well, we finally managed to get something like a lead," I confessed. Judging by the way I felt Glacia's spit-take on my scales, Glacia didn't expect this response.

"What? What do you mean, 'you've gotten a lead'? What did you manage to find out?" Glacia grabbed me, a strange fire in her eyes. "Tell me!"

"L-let go, Glacia!" Glacia, aware of what she was doing, dropped me, a blush forming fast on her face.

"Sorry…" she muttered, shading her eyes. Merla, who was still attached to the hip to Glacia, glared at me hard. I raised my eyebrow in response.

Merla was… weird. When I first met her and learned about 'Inversion', I couldn't believe it. A pokemon, evil by nature? I've lived long enough to know that pokemon become evil because of what they do, not what they look like. Even then, they always hold a sliver of goodness within themselves.

So, ignoring my new pal Shift's warnings, I headed over to Merla and said hello.

Then I felt the _aura_ , and I realized why Inverted pokemon were so evil.

Somehow, _somehow_ , Darkrai's aura infected them. I didn't know why or how, but as Merla glared at me with hate, I could feel Darkrai laughing in his insane way. I retreated for three seconds, then went back at it again.

"H-hello! My name is Naetle! How are you d-doing?" I asked, my mouth-beak trying to form a smile.

Merla continued to glare at me, and I felt my previous faith dematerialize into smoke.

"Leave."

So I left.

I, against my will, learned how to be a Venturer (I already know all this stuff, and some of it is wrong!). As I did so, I would watch Merla from afar. While there's an innate goodness in every pokemon, I can make an exception for the Inverted kind.

Or at least, I did, until one strange day a month ago, when two new kids entered the program.

Tom and Glacia. Boy, were they weird.

Glacia… she was friends with Merla. That enough was surprising on its own. Merla's only meaningful relationship, as far as I knew, was as Catal's mindless and loyal lackey. Someone that I pitied, but not that much.

Becoming _friends_ with someone? Naetle already tried that.

But here Merla was, making a new friend and _spitting_ on Catal's face. Merla's attitude toward Catal had done a complete 180. She had gone from worshiping his every breath to reviling his name.

What more, though, was that Merla _didn't have_ Darkrai's aura anymore. Somehow, it was gone, and the foreboding feeling I always got when I was in class and near Merla had disappeared.

I put two and two together.

A few hours later, Shift and I were friends with Vinia, Glacia, Merla (you could debate this), and Tom.

Speaking of Tom, he was a ghost. Before those few months, I would have cared less whether pokemon were ghosts or not. Ghost and not-ghosts were equal in my eyes.

But then I arrived in Jeden City in an alley in the middle of the night, with no idea how I got there. In Jeden, I learned how reviled ghosts were.

I ignored it the best I could, of course. Unlike Inverted Pokemon, I had evidence to the contrary that ghosts were not all that bad.

Sure enough, when I first met Tom I told him I wanted him to be my friend, and he accepted. Now I _knew_ not everything changed with time.

*SLAP*

"Naetle? NAETLE?!" Glacia was shouting at me, her voice tinged with worry.

"W-what?" I asked, dumbfounded.

"What happened? What did you find out? Why did you space out?" I blushed a little bit - while I was in memory-land, time still passed. All they must have seen was me zoning out while staring at Merla. They were looking rather disturbed at the whole thing.

"S-sorry, I remembered something when I saw Merla. A-anyway, our search went as usual - but we finally figured out what we needed to do next."

Glacia leaned forward. "Tell me!"

"Okay, so Tom asked what species Sky was, and I told him that Sky was a Piplup."

Glacia leaned backward, a little confused. "I don't get it - Tom has amnesia, right? Why would that be of any significance?"

"Well, Tom figured that Peng would have a small chance of knowing him, or at the very least know where he would head to."

Glacia began to growl, and Merla's eyes flashed, making me afraid.

"Naetle, that is the _stupidest_ idea to get excited for. Peng knowing where 'Sky' will be is as likely as 'Sky' barreling through the doors when I slam my paw down!" She slammed her paw down on the table with a large BANG, for emphasis.

I shrunk back, then steeled myself. "G-glacia, it's better than nothing, isn't it"

Merla gave him a derisive look. "Of course - what Lad… Glacia is saying is that you shouldn't get so excited over such a small chance!" She scoffed. "Go ahead, get your answers, Peng is right there!" Merla pointed straight at one of the tables. I craned my neck to see one of the tables. There stood Team Link. Peng the Prinplup stood there like a beacon of happiness among her gloomy teammates. "See how much good it does you."

Both Glacia and Merla headed back to their food peeved. That wasn't much of my concern at the moment, though. Peng had gotten up to refill her plate. Walking as fast as I could, I went to intercept her.

"Uh, hey, Peng?" I walked over to the Prinplup trying to look relaxed.

The ecstatic Prinplup turned to see me and smiled. "Hello!" Then she recognized me. "Hey, you're that kid from Team Ness, right? Uh… 'Naetle'!"

I nodded, trying to rush through the pleasantries. Yeah, anyway, there's something I need to ask you."

Peng grew even more excited. "Sure, ask away!"

"So, uh… have you heard of a Piplup that can… read the future? They might have appeared only a few months ago."

Peng looked a little pensive. "Hm… I… hm… read the future... you see, that sounds _somewhat_ familiar." Peng looked like she was concentrating hard. "Yeah… no, I haven't figured it out."

Crestfallen, I opened my mouth to give a polite thanks and leave, when she brightened up. "Yeah… Yeah! Is their name Sky?"

"Yes!" I shouted, attracting a few curious eyes. I lowered my voice. "I mean, yeah, their name is Sky!"

"Well, I saw it on the outlaw notice board."

I felt the world tip sideways. "Wh-what?"

"Yeah - you know how your rank separates the outlaw boards? Well, that Sky kid is on our outlaw notice board. He stole some important documents from the Venturing Headquarters. Warning posters and bounties for him are all over Naixe, I'm pretty sure."

Peng adopted a concerned look. "Do you know anything about him?"

"N-no!" I denied immediately. "Well, um, thank you for the information, Peng!"

Peng smiled and waved. "See you!"

I, in a daze, walked to the table. Glacia and Merla had already left, it looked like. A new table of Venturers had settled into the seat.

I didn't know what to do…

* * *

"... then I figured, I'd come here. So, uh, yeah, that's what happened." I recounted the story to Vinia, who was looking rather ticked off.

"Did you _have_ to go into inner monologues, Naetle?" She asked, her tone caustic.

"Well… no, I thought I'd say it since it wouldn't have made much sense otherwise." I explained.

Vinia gritted her teeth. "Sure." Then she tried to relax, I could tell, from the way she huffed. "Anyway, do you know where the outlaw boards for more advanced Venturers are?"

"Uh, yeah, they're near the Mission Office. Why do you want to know?" Instead of answering me, Vinia grabbed me. We teleported to the hallway outside the Mission Office.

"What are -" I tried to ask what Vinia was doing, but she used her Psychic power to ram my mouth shut. Vinia made a motion for me to be quiet, and I nodded to show my assent.

After she let go of my mouth, I tried to resume my question. "What are you -" She rammed my mouth shut again.

"Say, Falcon, did you hear something?" That weird lady - Ms. Kaili - asked.

"No, Milla, I didn't."

Oh… I… oh…

Vinia dragged me over to the outlaw notice board and began to search through the board. Realizing what she was doing, I went to help her.

After a couple of minutes of search, we found the poster.

 _ **Pokemon Species: Unknown**_

 _ **Name: Sky**_

 _ **Allegiances: Unknown**_

 _ **Crime: Larceny of Venturer-grade Confidential Documents**_

 _ **Location: Unknown**_

 _ **Bounty: 20,000 Poke**_

 _ **Defining Features: Has Voluntary Directable Precognition**_

On the board, there was a large picture of a question mark. Vinia let out an audible gasp.

"Falcon, I can't help but think someone is outside. I'm going to go and check."

Then next thing I knew, Vinia had teleported us back into our base, releasing her psychic hold over my mouth.

"What happened?" The question spilled out of my mouth. "Why did we teleport out so fast?"

Then I saw Vinia's face. Underneath the sweaty and matted hair, her face was pale. Not the normal, clean, ivory white that it usually was but a deathly pale.

"I…I..." Vinia was stuttering. "I need to… We need to tell the rest of the group."

"What? What do you mean? _Why_ did we have to teleport so fast?"

"Ms. Kaili was coming, remember? But that's not important, Naetle. We have to share this as soon as possible."

I understood how serious this was. "Okay, we'll go tell everyone as soon as possible. Where _is_ everyone, anyway?"

Vinia started to return to her normal color. "Well, didn't you say that they were going to the library to research ten minutes ago?"

…

"I may have some problems," I admitted. Vinia snickered as I did so. "Anyway, yeah, they're in the library. What about Tom - what did you two do after I went to dinner."

"We… oh." Vinia came to a stop. "Uh… hey, Naetle, do you mind somebody… sleeping in your room?" It ended off in a nervous question.

I nodded. "No, I don't mind," I remarked. Vinia looked relieved. "Why do you ask?" a nagging suspicion entered my brain.

"We may have… well, there was a fire, and… Tom may have let Kavol live in Team Ness's base until he gets back on his feet." Vinia then gasped. "We should go tell this to Glacia and Merla before they find out for themselves!" She then began to drag me out into the hallway.

...WHAT!?

* * *

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, YOU'RE LETTING HIM LIVE IN OUR BASE?!"

"Oh no, we're too late," Vinia moaned. "Getting Glacia to agree to this is going to be a nightmare. And what about _Merla_? Oh, _why_ didn't I stop Tom when he offered Kavol a place to stay?"

"Who is Kavol?" I asked, out of my depth.

"I'll tell you when we stop the fight." Turning the corner, I saw Tom and a Vikavolt facing Glacia and Merla in the middle of the hallway.

"... what were you thinking? WHAT WERE YOU THINKING, LETTING SOMEONE WE DON'T KNOW LIVE IN OUR BASE!?" Glacia was almost frothing at the mouth now. Tom had shrunk back, looking contrite and shameful. Merla was glaring at him with the intensity of a thousand suns. The Vikavolt only looked confused. A curious crowd began to gather.

Vinia cursed

"I… um…" Tom tried to say. "The thing is…"

With a tiny flash of light, Vinia teleported into the fray, grabbed Tom and Glacia, and teleported out. Before anyone had realized she was there, the three of them disappeared.

Gobsmacked, Merla, the Vikavolt, and I sat froze. Three seconds later, Vinia returned.

"Naetle, lead Kavol to your room," Vinia ordered.

Merla recovered her wits. "YOU-"

Vinia grabbed Merla and teleported out. She left me with the Vikavolt and the forming crowd.

My mind was in scatters when the Vikavolt recovered. "Well, take me to your room, please."

In response, I began walking him to the residential part of the base, the crowd watching. As we stepped out of their eyes, my mind recollected. "I… you're Kavol?"

Kavol nodded. "Yes, my name is Kavol! Nice to meet you, er… Naetle?"

I nodded. "So… you're living with us?" It felt strange to say that. "How… what happened?"

"My house burned down today! Your good friend Tom said I could stay with you as I recovered and got back on my feet!"

"... oh. I… it's a little surprising, that's all." Sky and I _had_ housed guests underneath Sharpedo Bluff. I couldn't help but smile as I remembered the innocent infantile Manaphy. "I'm okay with you living with us."

Then I remembered something. "Um… while you live here, could you give us privacy for team meetings? Glacia, Merla, Tom, and I are part of Team Ness, and we would like some privacy for some briefings." It felt weird saying that.

Kavol looked confused. "Is Vinia not part of your team?"

"Well, no. Vinia is a student of Ms. Kiss, the matron of the medical ward. She's learning healing techniques, and stuff like that."

Kavol nodded. "Ah. Then yes, I promise I won't intrude on your team meetings." After a second, he looked pleased with himself.

I sighed. "Look, today's been a long day. Can we make our way to the Base already?"

"Of course!" So we winded our way through the worm-like tunnels, arriving at our door. Behind the door, there was silence. Taking a deep breath, I opened the door, Kavol trailing me.

Inside, Merla was struggling to escape Vinia's psychic prison. Glacia continued to lash out at Tom. "Why _didn't_ I expect this - you have no idea of the consequences of your actions, do you? Now we're going to have to find a new place to talk about our investigation." Kavol perked up behind me.

"Investigation?"

All eyes turned to us, and I mentally cursed the naive Kavol.

"Uh… don't worry about it, Kavol. It's… um… nothing." Darn it, why did I sound so much like Bidoof? "Try to forget about it." Kavol didn't look very convinced.

Glacia sighed, walked up to Kavol, and stared him down. "I'll say this once, and I'll say this only once. You are here because of our _charity_. Don't forget it." Her eyes narrowed. "I've never met you, so I'm putting a _lot_ of trust into you two." She motioned to Tom. "I don't want to _regret_ it."

Kavol looked cowed. Merla glared at both Tom and Kavol with spite. "Be glad of L- Glacia's kindness. If not, you would be on the streets."

Kavol sighed. "Yes, I know," he admitted, "which is why I'll try to make it up to you as best I can."

"Give us some privacy when we want it, alright?"

"Sure!" Kavol nodded. "I can work with that!"

Glacia, looking tired, opened her mouth for a second, closing it afterward. "Nevermind," she muttered to herself. "We'll manage." She waved us over. "Come on, let's meet in the girls' room - that you are _not_ allowed to go into." She shot a warning toward Kavol, who only blinked.

The five of us walked into the girls' room. I was about as I expected - clean, with some borrowed books lying here or there.

Glacia collapsed onto her bed. "Ugh… can tonight get any worse? Merla and I still haven't found anything. Naetle raised our hopes with a _lie_. Now we have a crazy Vikavolt living next door!"

"Yeah… about that…" Vinia said. "Naetle, do _you_ want to explain what we found out?"

"Yeah. So, everyone knows what I wanted to ask Peng, right?"

Glacia waved a tired paw. "Yeah, yeah. You wanted to ask Peng a question she couldn't hope to answer. Gee whiz, it turns out she doesn't know who Sky is."

"Not exactly." There was a silence in the room. Glacia, Tom, and Merla's eyes latched on to my form.

"You're… you're kidding!" Glacia blurted, her voice incredulous. "She… she actually knew who Sky was? But that… that's impossible!"

"No, she recognized the name, Glacia." Vinia asserted.

Glacia's face split into a grin "That means that all we have to do is get to him, right? Where is he?" She jumped up, despite exhaustion.

Vinia shook her head. "Be patient, Glacia. Let Naetle tell the story." Glacia nodded, beaming. Merla, for some reason, didn't look very happy.

I coughed and continued. "Well, yeah, she did know who Sky was - but, uh, not for the right reasons. Sky is an… outlaw." It felt wrong saying that.

Glacia's mouth gaped, "W-what? Your partner is an… outlaw?"

Vinia sighed. "Well, that's what the wanted posters say, anyway. Peng told us that the Venturers caught him stealing some important documents." She offered an arm out. "Do you guys want to see the wanted poster?"

Glacia nodded teleported with Vinia to the hallway. Twenty seconds later, they returned, Glacia deep in her thoughts.

"Does you guys want to see the posters?" She offered to Tom and Merla. Merla shook her head, but Tom nodded.

"Naetle, your partner is a criminal!" Glacia accused me, her eyes narrowing. I huffed.

"No, he's not! I bet it… it's some Ditto or something! Sky would _never_ be a criminal!"

"We're back!" Tom and Vinia had teleported back.

"How do you know, Naetle? Are you sure he's the same pokemon you once knew!"

I growled and adopted a fighting stance, my blood boiling. "Sky is better than that! He's never done anything selfish, ever! He's been nothing but nice to everyone. You should respect that!"

The fight would have continued, had Vinia not clamped down on our mouths with psychic power. She was getting rather good at that.

"Tom, hold Merla back." Merla, upon seeing how Vinia used her powers on Glacia, flew into a frothing rage. "Guys, right now Sky's relative morality isn't the issue. What I'm more concerned about is how they got the information on Sky in the first place."

Vinia gestured to Tom to let Merla go, and when released Merla flew at Vinia, seething.

"Merla, stop!" Merla careened to a stop a few inches from a guarded Vinia. "Vinia isn't the issue, Merla. We have more important things to worry about right now!"

"Is everything alright in there?" Kavol called from the other room.

"Yes!" Tom replied, with a quiver of fear in his voice.

Merla retreated, still glaring at Vinia. She still seemed to be combative to anyone that wasn't Glacia. Any sort of friendliness progress with her was slow and uncomfortable - she didn't get us, at all.

Glacia sighed. "Sorry, Vinia. What did you mean when you said you were more concerned with how they got the information in the first place?"

"Glacia, what was the information on the wanted poster?"

"Sky's name, crime, bounty, and the Dimensional Scream." Glacia recited. "I'm a little confused on what you mean by that, though. There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with that, though." Even as Glacia said that her mind was hard at work to our eyes.

"What about Sky's species, then? Why didn't they know that?" A look of comprehension was dawning on Merla and Glacia's face. I was still confused.

"Huh? I don't get it - what do you mean?" Tom was as confused as I was, it seemed.

Vinia sighed. "Tom, how would they know about Sky's _name_ , when they don't even know what he looks like?"

"Uh… calling card?"

"Not his style, Tom." I was quick to point out. "Who would leave a calling card for something like that?" I felt a glimmer of hope rise inside me.

"Right - somehow, they knew Sky's name without knowing his species. And how did they know about the Dimensional Scream as well?"

Tom still looked confused. "I still don't get it!"

I understood, though. "They're framing him, then." The room grew silent. Tom gasped, his eyes widening. "They don't actually know who Sky is, only his name and his Dimensional Scream ability."

Merla stepped forward. "How do they know that, though? How do they know his name and about the Dimensional Scream?"

Vinia looked deep in thought. "That's what I'm trying to figure out. Guys, can you help me brainstorm?"

I, though, remembered something. Assuming that they never met Sky, they would only know about him from second-hand sources. I was the only one who knew about Sky until a month ago when I first told Tom. If I trusted that this room was secure and none of us were traitors…

"Hey, Tom, did anyone eavesdrop on us when I first told you about Sky?" I asked.

Tom frowned. "No, I don't think so. We were alone in that chamber when we had that conversation after we were looking for the..." Our faces whitened.

"The Corsola!"

Glacia scrunched her face. "The Corsola? Who do you… " Her eyes widened. "Our first outlaw?"

When Glacia said this, Vinia fell into a heap, her body shaking and shivering.

"Vinia! Are you alright?" Tom asked, worried.

Vinia shot him a watery smile. "I… I've figured out most of what's going on. Did you say anything about Sky near the Corsola? Anything interesting like the Dimensional Scream?"

"We chose to see whether Tom was an amnesiac and transformed Sky. I had him try to trigger the Dimensional Scream. It didn't work, though." I sighed, ashamed. "The Corsola was in the room with us, camouflaged. It only appeared at the end, when it let its position slip."

I shook my head. "But I don't get it. How did the Corsola tell the entire Venturing Organization about the Dimensional Scream? Why would they pay attention to her in the first place?"

Vinia sighed again, looking tired. "I… guys… do you… do you guys… trust me?" Vinia looked vulnerable.

Glacia nodded, a beacon of confidence. "Yes, Vinia, we trust you. What's wrong?"

Vinia, after staring at Glacia for a few seconds, began to reveal her secret. "I… my mother… is Night."

The room was silent. "What do you mean?" Glacia asked, a little bemused. "I mean Night is the prison warden, right? A Gardevoir?" A look of comprehension dawned on her face. "Oh, so THAT'S WHY YOUR MI-"

Vinia glared at Glacia, aggravated. "Yes, that's why it looked like that. You don't need to blurt it out, do you?"

Glacia shook her head, giddy.

"For the first… ten years of life, I was under my mother's thumb. Oh, I suppose she was nice enough. She gave me nice food, allowed me to play fun games, stuff like that." Vinia shifted her head. "But… she's not nice at all."

"Huh?" I had to ask. "Kol had nothing but good things to say about her."

"Then they suckered him in as well. Heck, he may be a part of her spy network."

Glacia's eyes sharpened, as did Merla's. "What do you mean, 'spy network'?" they asked.

Vinia raised her eyebrow. "She has a legion of informants throughout the city and no shortage of servants. She has a near complete control over the entire of Jeden City. It was only when I got older that I realized how powerful it was. Look, let me ask you a question. Why do you think that there are so many anti-ghost type laws?"

"Captain Falcon." Our eyes turned to a sorrowful Tom. "Captain Falcon enacted many of those laws. He made ghost types unpopular."

Vinia nodded. "Okay, why?"

"What?"

"Why did he enact the laws? Why Ghost-types of all types? He didn't have a problem with Ghost-types when he was younger. His best friend was a Rowlet, and he definitely met their Decidueye mother. The anti-ghost type laws were a complete surprise - but why did they occur in the first place."

There was a current of shock running throughout the room. We had all assumed that Captain Falcon hated Ghost-types because he was a fighting type. It seemed the most logical conclusion.

"Vinia, are you saying that there's _another_ reason he enacted those laws?"

"Yes - because of my mother, and what ghost type energy does to her powers."

An inkling of a reason started running through my mind. "Are you saying Jeden City shunned an _entire Type_ because it nullified your mom's powers?"

"Not only that but their invulnerability to her powers as well."

Glacia backed up. "Okay, hold on. What _are_ your mother's powers? And what do they have to do with Sky or the laws? Why should we worry about her in the first place, anyway?"

Vinia glared. "I was getting to that. My mother… look, I don't know how she does it. But somehow, she has one move she uses to perfection. That move… is Hypnosis."

Glacia gasped and her face turned white. To contrast, I was only confused.

"You get it now, don't you?" Vinia pled.

Merla interjected, annoyed. "Excuse me, but I'm a little lost. Why, exactly, is Hypnosis, of all moves, so dangerous and frightening?"

Vinia raised an eyebrow. "Merla, what do you think Hypnosis is?"

"Hypnosis is a Move that manipulates the opponent's mental state, usually into sleeping. Pokemon such as Hypno, though, can use Hypnosis to as a sedative. They can also use it as a tool to control their opponent's wills and overpower their perceptions. They may also use subconscious suggestions." Merla recited, raising an eyebrow. "What does that matter, at all?"

"Uh, Merla, can you clarify?" Tom asked, a little bemused.

Merla groaned. "Look, Hypnosis puts a pokemon to sleep, that's all its useful for."

Vinia shook her head. "Merla, say those last two sentences of that definition again, in a way we can understand."

Merla made another aggravated noise. "Some pokemon can use Hypnosis to calm other pokemon down. They can also use it to…" Here, Merla grew deep in thought. A worried look fell over her face. "...control their enemies and… trick their senses. Create illusions, in normal terms."

Already I was getting another inkling of what Vinia was driving at.

"And that last bit? About the subconscious suggestions?"

Merla furrowed her brow. "I… I'm still trying to think through that one."

Vinia waved her off. "It's fine, I'll explain it. Hypnotic subconscious suggestions override how you'll feel about something. Some Hypno use it to treat Nip addiction - they make the smell of Nip taste awful to the addict. Soon, they won't be able to stand it, and with a little bit of time they won't want Nip anymore."

Tom smiled. "Well, that's good, right?"

Vinia took a deep breath. "Hypnosis is a powerful tool because of its power over a pokemon's mind. Let me tell you how my mother uses it. Her Hypnosis is powerful - so powerful that it can overpower a pokemon's desire for natural happiness. She can give you a powerful ecstasy, so powerful it reduces rational thought to garbage."

Vinia began to shake, her eyes far away. "She… uses it on her prisoners, in a process she calls Euphoria. Using that with Torment, she… _breaks_ … the prisoners. She _enslaves_ them, reducing their free will to nothing. The prisoners love their warden and feel nothing but joy when they see her."

Every word Vinia said seemed to remind me of…

… oh no. The VIP prisoners.

"They lose all sense of their identity, feeling nothing but joy in their shackles. Mother… she feeds off that joy. Unlike other pokemon of our evolutionary line, she doesn't try to be nice to make pokemon happy. Instead, she turns them insane and devoted."

Merla began to shake as well. "It… it was like that with Catal. The Master is the Pleasure. Everything else is the Pain."

A sickening feeling grew over my stomach. "How… how has nobody stopped this?!"

"Nobody but her slaves and I know. She erases their minds and puts in favorable hypnotic suggestions of the prison. That, or she breaks those that find out herself. The only reason she doesn't have complete control over the city is that she has to play by Officer Magnezone's rules. He holds almost as much power as she and Captain Falcon combined do. She can't control him, either - somehow he's immune."

Vinia sighed. "A year ago, I escaped the prison. I had finally realized how awful my mother was and tried to run away. Unfortunately, I got caught in a Mystery Dungeon. A Venturing Squad rescued me and brought me to this base. Captain Falcon, another of mother's slaves, forced me into the program."

A rueful smile appeared on her face. "I never escaped, didn't I?"

A stark silence filled the room. The members of Team Ness stared at each other, and at Vinia.

Glacia gulped. "So… so let me get this straight. Your mother… Night… has almost complete control over the city, thanks to her Hypnotism. She's controlling Captain Falcon and has spies all over the city. She brainwashes, using Hypnosis and Torment, her prisoners into loving her. She does this so she can feed off their happiness. She's trying to remove all the ghost types so that she can have complete control, as they interfere somehow. Have I… Have I gotten anything wrong?"

Vinia shook her head. "No, that's all right."

"B-but what about Dark Types!," Glacia countered. "They're immune to Hypnosis! And Bug types are as resistant to psychic type moves as ghosts are, and Steel-types too! Why didn't she get rid of them as well!"

"Dark types are immune to psychic moves, yea. But immunity is actually a lot easier to counteract than resistances are." Vinia replied with her eyes a little unfocused as if remembering something awful.

"How?!"

"Ring Targets. They remove all type immunities from whoever touches it. Attach it to the Dark type and you can say goodbye to that protection from Hypnosis."

Merla, though, continued to argue. "Then what about Bug-types - what about their resistance."

"From what I heard, my mother had a little bit of trouble dealing with Bug types at first. A Bug Type's brain is alien, overactive, and intelligent. It interferes with the precision she needs for brainwashing. But after a little bit of practice, she figured out how to navigate their minds. They stopped being a hindrance and more of a challenge." Vinia explained, resting her head on the bed.

"And as for Steel types… well, they're as hard for her to touch as Ghost-types, because of their biological apathy. That apathy works in her favor, though - they're willing to listen to her authority. They don't seem to care much about the morality of their actions. She uses different methods of manipulation for them."

At this, I stepped forward. Incensed, I challenged Vinia. "Shift isn't like that - he has a good heart!"

Vinia nodded. "Yeah - he's the exception. You know how his parents didn't care that he was friends with an Inverted Pokemon and a Ghost? They're like that - ambivalent toward everything." Vinia frowned. "I'm actually thinking that Magnezone _knows_ about my mother, but doesn't care."

There was another pregnant pause. There were a lot of those, with all the bombshells dropped tonight. I had to ask why everything was happening _tonight_ , of all nights. The fire in Kavol's shop, Tom's idea, and all the ensuing chaos.

"Then why… why are Ghost-types so threatening?" Tom was shaking.

"It's the nature of ghost energy, Tom. The nature of ghost type energy destabilizes the psychic energy. My mother, for all her control, can never make a ghost type do more than go to sleep. Brainwashing? Impossible."

"So then why?" Tom asked, bemused.

"Why what?"

"Why were Alice and I allowed to become Venturers here in Jeden? Why are we the exceptions?"

Vinia raised her hands. "I… I don't know. Look, my mother is insane - I don't know _why_ she's doing any of this, only how she's doing it."

I coughed. "We… we should go to sleep. Think about this in the morning."

Vinia shook her head. "No. I… I've told you almost everything about my mother that I knew before today. There's only one other bit."

We all leaned in closer.

"When she admits a prisoner, they have to go through a mental screening. It's done for all the prisons and allows us to capture outlaws without needing a trial. My mother reveals all their recent memories. She uses them to judge whether she should imprison them or not.

"She… she hasn't… according to her, the Venturers have yet to make a mistake in capturing an outlaw yet. She claims they always get it right."

We understood the subtext behind that statement.

Whether they were innocent or guilty, Night kept them all.

"B-but anyway, do you see what I'm getting at?"

I understood that, too. "Yeah. Once the Corsola came in for the screening, Night found out everything and knew about Sky's existence. Then, all she had to was set up a bounty, right? Make a few trumped-up charges to go along with it."

Vinia nodded. "She could even hire an outlaw to steal the documents. Who knows?"

"But… why?" Glacia asked, weary. "Why would she try and capture Sky?"

I had a sinking feeling in my stomach. "Glacia, do you know how powerful the Dimensional Scream is? As long as you're touching something important and relevant enough, you can know anything. I don't know what's the limit, we weren't ever able to figure it out."

"And knowledge is power." Glacia nodded, grim. "She'll be able to do whatever she wants with that power."

I shook my head. "Glacia, while the Dimensional Scream is powerful, Sky would never obey Night - not in a million years."

"She'll break him, Naetle - she can break anyone, as long as they aren't a Ghost. And Sky's not a Ghost."

I felt something akin to hackles rise. "Sky is greater than that! We've faced stronger foes than some evil Gardevoir!"

Vinia lifted her face, and I, startled, saw tears streaming down. "No, he can't! Nobody can!"

All my desire to argue the point disappeared in an instant.

Merla, eyes dead, sighed. "Well, I guess we've lost."

Everyone stared at her. "What?" My voice was dangerous.

"Sky is gone to us. We have to, by a miracle, find him before the Venturers. Then we have to keep him hidden from the rest of the Venturers until you two escape back to the past. If we don't, the Venturers will capture him. Then he'll be either brainwashed, tortured, or plain imprisoned. We won't be able to get to him anymore. And I don't think we'll be able to find him before every single other Venturer."

"We'll have to find some other way to get back to the past. If we go back in time over and over again, we could rescue him, through pure luck. But as we are now? We've lost."

The world slipped from underneath me.

"And if they find the… Passage of Time, using the Dimensional Scream? It's over. It's _all_ over."

A quiet melancholy drifted over the rest of the group. The sheer impossibility of the situation finally gripped me. We were trying to find a needle in a haystack. Not only that, we were competing against thousands of more experienced needle searchers. And if we lost, the entire world, the timestream itself, could be at Night's mercy.

Tom got up. "I… I should be going. Alice will be waiting for me."

He opened the door.

"Argh!" We all jumped. Kavol was right next to the doorframe.

"So… you've been listening in?" Glacia asked, depressed.

Kavol, once collecting his composure, nodded. "I… I'm sorry. I… didn't know how big your troubles were. All I heard was 'team' and 'investigation', and I…"

Vinia sighed. "It doesn't matter. Not now. Not when we lost a month ago, Kavol."

Kavol shook his head. "Kids, earlier today I learned that when it seems you've lost everything, you're only a step away from victory. Tom, Vinia, I saw how you two tried your best, thought as hard as you could, to find a way to help me out. You guys _can't_ give up, not when so much is at stake. Pull yourselves together, and try to think of a way out of it."

Merla scoffed. "Nice pep talk. Do _you_ have a way to get to Sky first?"

Kavol remained silent.

Merla laughed, a dark tone prevalent. "Yeah, that's what I thought. You think you can waltz into our lives and tell us to 'Not Give Up'? We need _help_ , not motivation. What can you do?"

Kavol was as silent as Caterpie. "I… I build machines."

Glacia raised one of her eyebrows. "What?"

Tom stepped forward. "Kavol is an inventor, Glacia."

Glacia nodded. "Oh."

Out of morbid curiosity, I spoke. Might as well try to cheer up. "So, uh, Kavol, what are some of the things you've built?"

Kavol cheered up a little. "I've invented the Insomniscope, the Scope Lens, the Link Box, TMs-"

"Wait, wait, I recognize all those things." Everyone stared at me. "TMs are devices you can use to learn Moves, right?"

Kavol looked at me in wonder. "Yeah… How did you know that?"

"We had all those things in our time. TMs were definitely useful, even if you could only use them once."

Kavol shook his head. "You can use mine over and over again."

My jaw dropped. "A-are you serious?"

Kavol nodded with pride. "Yeah, I have Poison Jab, X-Scissor, and Energy Ball."

Energy Ball! "Can I borrow the Energy Ball one, please? I want to relearn it."

Kavol nodded. "Sure! I'll be happy to help!" He buzzed to our door. "Come on, we can go learn it now."

"Do you two mind if I come as well? I won't have to meet Alice for another hour or so." Tom asked. Kavol and I nodded our assent, so Tom got up and started walking out the front door.

I walked out the door as well, eager to get my mind off our impending doom.

We walked, somewhat depressed, through the hallways of the base. The revelations made everything feel darker. This time… it felt like it was a mockery of all the things I loved about my time.

An insincere copycat and a brainwashed chicken replaced the kind Guildmaster Wigglytuff. In my time, almost everyone was trustworthy and open. Now everyone holds their secrets close to their chest - even me. There are enemies, both visible and hidden, every which way you turn.

It's… getting hard to trust.

And Sky…

"Naetle, why are you crying?" Tom, concerned, asked.

"It's… it's nothing." I sobbed, trying to hold back my tears. "Let's… let's go find the TM."

We made our way into our storage room, a small earthen cell in the tunnels of the Base. Kavol started scouring around for the Energy Ball TM. Tom and I helped a little as well, digging through some of Kavol's random inventions.

After ten minutes or so, Kavol found it.

"Aha! Here it is!" He flew it over to me. "You know how to use this, right. Apply it to-"

"The forehead, yes, I know," I answered. I pressed the disk to my forehead and let the muscle memory of Energy Ball usage flow back into my head.

"Well?" Kavol pressed, looking worried. "Did it work?"

In response, I aimed toward one of the walls and fired a glowing green orb at it. The Energy Ball smashed against the wall, dislodging some dust as the room shook.

"Great!" Kavol shouted, relieved. "Nice to see that it's working!"

Tom looked around. "Hey, can you describe some of these things to me?" Tom sounded bored but curious.

Kavol nodded. "Sure! Those are the Goggle Specs. They can strip away illusions, even those of a Zoroarks. Be careful, though - wearing them for even an hour can give you awful headaches."

Kavol passed the Goggle Specs around. Looking into it, I felt my eyes strain a little bit, and my attention to detail sharpened. After a few seconds, I took the pair off.

"What about these?" Tom pointed to another pair of specs.

"Those are the Lockon Specs. I found some minerals reactive to spacetime moves like Teleport. I made the specs to improve my precision."

Something about what Kavol said was bugging me. "Minerals reactive to spacetime?"

Kavol nodded. "Yeah. Things that have mass have gravity, right, and gravity affects spacetime. The mineral's properties change, too, when interacting with different gravities. Using the Specs, I can locate things with bigger mass with ease."

What was bugging me still continued to bug, but I let it go for now.

"Hey, Kavol, what are these?"

"Those are the X-Ray Specs. If you use them, you can look straight through solid objects. You need to fine-tune the settings for variable penetration. Even with that, it has the ability to look through anything."

"Cool. And this?" Tom pointed to a box.

"That's my Wonder Chest. It increases the plasticity of your neurons. That allows you to learn and train many times faster. Of course, it does have the side effect of making you a little gullible."

The two of them kept on talking about the various inventions. They were interesting, but for the life of me, I couldn't pay attention. All I could think about was Sky…

… and the Lockon Specs, for some reason. I couldn't shake my head from something.

Could putting them on will help?

I walked over to the Lockon Specs and slipped them on.

Everything gained a strange glow to it. I could see what Kavol meant. All the things in the room were glowing with a different color of light. The colors ranged from red to orange in the room, with the metal door a dark yellow.

I took it all in.

"Hey Naetle, what do you have on? I turned around to look at Tom and received a surprise.

I thought that Tom was going to be a red, or an orange if he was heavy.

But Tom was rainbow, switching colors in a psychedelic swirl. While Kavol was the normal reddish-orange, Tom was swirling colors.

"Tom, you're… rainbow?" I asked.

Tom raised the Litwick equal to his eyebrow. Bemused, Kavol, on the other hand, took an interest in what I was saying.

"Can I see?"

I passed him the Specs. He put them on and gasped.

"Naetle, you're right! He _is_ a rainbow - and so are you!"

I had a strange connection to the Specs - I felt like there was something about them that could help me. "Kavol, is the rainbow thing normal for other pokemon? I mean, you looked normal in it, after all."

Kavol shook his head. "I built these to improve accuracy. There's no reason why it should be acting like this - most other pokemon looked as normal as anything else."

I needed to get to the bottom of this. "Kavol, do you have any ideas why it's like this? Why Tom and I are like this?"

Kavol considered the question. "Well, the Lockon Specs are reactive to spacetime. It changes the colors of the lens in response to how much your mass affects spacetime. I… for some reason, your colors are variable and changing. The spacetime around you two is shifting and changing."

"Like it's distorted."

Then it hit me like a pile of bricks. I then had something of an epiphany. "Kavol, we need to get back to team base, _now_."

"Why?"

I stared at him. "I… I need to check something. If I'm right… it might help us find Sky."

The two looked at me for a couple of seconds, eyes wide.

"Y-yes!" Kavol choked out. "Let's go!"

We rushed through the base, arriving at our door a few scant minutes later. The three ladies of our team were still lying around. It seems like they hadn't stopped moping yet.

We shocked them, of course, when we slammed open the door.

"T-tom? Naetle?" Vinia asked, confused. "What… what happened?"

Instead of answering her, I looked at Kavol, who still had the Lockon Specs on. "Their colors?"

"Merla's red, and so is Vinia. Glacia is rainbow like the both of you."

Kavol confirmed my idea. I couldn't stop myself from smiling.

"Naetle, Tom, Kavol what's the matter?! Why… what were you doing?" Glacia asked, her eyebrows raised.

I couldn't help it, but my voice dripped with eagerness and excitement. "Guys, we have something to help us find Sky!"

At this, they perked up. Glacia sat up straight. "Are you serious, Naetle?" There was a note of hope in her voice. "Do you actually have an idea?"

I nodded. "Let me tell you what happened. We went to the storage room where Kavol keeps his inventions. After I learned Energy Ball again, Tom asked about some of Kavol's inventions. One of these inventions was the Lockon Specs." I pointed to Kavol, who adjusted the Specs.

"The Lockon Specs have a mineral reactive to spacetime. The mineral changes the color of the lens based on the spacetime around what it's looking at."

Merla looked intrigued. "Is this true?"

Kavol nodded. "Choronium can do that. I have a small deposit with me, enough to make one or two more Lockon Specs."

I continued. "Anyway, when I put them on, I saw that Tom, instead of a red glow like everyone else, had a rainbow-swirl glow. When Kavol put them on to confirm this, he saw that I had the swirl as well. I then had an idea and came here to check on you guys' glows as well."

I then addressed Kavol. "So Merla and Vinia aren't rainbows, but Glacia is?"

Kavol nodded.

Glacia looked intrigued. "Okay, so I have a rainbow glow. Why is that so important - no, why do I even have it at all?"

I barreled onward. "The minerals are reactive to spacetime, so that means that if our display is weird, our spacetime is weird."

"Why is our spacetime weird, then?" Tom asked, a little concerned.

"Time travel." Everyone's eyes glued to me. "Remember that I said that I time traveled before now?"

Everyone but Kavol nodded.

"Well, after everything calmed down, I tried to evolve. But no matter how strong Sky or I got, we weren't able to get strong enough to evolve. Then we learned that because of our time travel, space had distorted around us. The distortion prevented us from evolving."

Glacia's eyes widened, and a note of fear entered her voice. "Is... is that right?"

"Glacia, my body has been ready to evolve for months now. The distortion prevents evolution itself."

Glacia gulped. "Oh."

"Anyway, time travel causes distortions in our personal spacetime. That's why Lockon Specs shows us in a changing rainbow than a set color. Our effect on spacetime is shifting and changing."

Merla looked at me, skeptic. "Okay, but how does that help us find Sky?"

"Sky is a time traveler too, remember? He'll register on the Lockon Specs as a rainbow, as we do. If we use it, we can identify Sky based on how he glows."

Merla nodded. "Okay, but how do we _find_ him? We know how to identify him - Rainbow on the Specs and a Piplup, answering to the name of Sky. But where do we found out his _location_?"

The bubble of hope inside me shrunk. "I…"

Tom stepped forward. "Guys, think about it. We've already made progress toward Sky. We _can't_ give up." He pointed to Kavol. "Kavol is right. We need to think outside the box, innovate. How can we find Sky's location?"

Vinia threw her hands in the air. "Sky could be anywhere! You guys didn't land in the same place, did you? There's no one place where you go when you time travel!" She stared at me with ferocity. "We have no map, Naetle. The Lockon Specs will only work in our line of sight, not the entirety of Naixe!"

"Why can't it?"

Tom's comment turned the room silent, so silent you could hear a pin drop.

"Choronium is reactive to spacetime, right? _It_ has the ability to sense distortions, not the Lockon Specs." Tom turned to Kavol. "Kavol, can you build a device that can act like the Lockon Specs and search Naixe?"

All eyes turned to Kavol "I…" His eyes became lost in thought. "I'm not sure…" Then Kavol looked like he had a bright idea. "I'll get the IQ Booster. It'll be only a minute, and I'll be able to tell you if what you're thinking of is possible."

He rushed out and came back a minute later, carrying a metal box. "Here's the IQ Booster. It'll raise my intelligence for an hour. With it, I'll be able to tell you if that radar thing is possible."

He pressed one of his digits to the box and concentrated. Soon enough, his eyes began to glow a burning blue, to our amazement.

"Yes… yes… yes… YES!" He shouted with glee. "I can build it! It'll take a few weeks to make a couple of experimental prototypes, but with you guys, I'll be able to test it out."

Glacia collapsed. "We… it's possible. We… we found a new way." She then fell asleep in her bed, a smile stretched across her face. Merla soon followed

Kavol had already begun scribbling on a piece of paper. He was drawing diagrams with gusto and insane vigor. I could see him already building different schematics. The IQ Booster looked like it would be deadly useful.

Tom then left for his meeting with Alice for training. He asked Kavol if he could use the Wonder Chest, to which Kavol gave his assent. I would have to use it as well.

Vinia teleported to her own room to go to sleep. I went to sleep in my room as well - it was getting late.

Now we had a way forward. Now we actually knew how much time it would take to get back to the past.

Now the race to find Sky was even, sheer numbers against an actual method.

Now the race to find Sky was on.

* * *

"Father, what are you doing?" Nyx stepped into the room, stretching and shiting as she did so.

"Nothing?" Lord Pyre was standing still, illuminating the quiet room. "What's wrong with doing nothing?"

"You know that we have important things to do - you're the spearhead of the organization. You're not very motivating, sitting around like this."

Pyre shook his head. "I'm not trying to be motivating, Nyx. Our aides have plenty of motivation already. I offered them a choice, a choice that they wanted to make before, but couldn't. They owe me for that, and fight as hard as they can."

"And as for important things to do, well, there aren't any. We still don't have enough forces. We have nowhere near enough pokemon to do anything without setting off the Venturers. Night's hypnosis can only do so much. We have to wait, Nyx. There isn't much I can do for our experiments with the Miasma, either. That isn't in my hands."

"Nyx, there's not much I _can_ to do."

Nyx huffed, unconvinced. "So what? Everything is going alright without your direct interference. That doesn't change anything - you still need to do _something_."

Pyre was silent, then sighed. "Alright then - what have _you_ been doing?"

"Organizing the recruitment efforts and experiments with Miasma, same as Night." Nyx sneered. "I still think that she's wasting time, though, with the 'outlaw'."

"Sky. The 'outlaw' is Sky, Nyx. I taught you to at least try to remember names." Pyre admonished, bored.

Nyx waved. "Not my issue. Tell me, what's the _point_ of the matter. Even if what the… was it a Turtwig that the Corsola heard from?"

"Yes, a Turtwig named Naetle."

"Even if the Turtwig was right, and we find somebody with that power, how is it going to _help_ us? We don't need reconnaissance - we're not in a war, we don't plan on fighting one, and we don't need to find out anything."

Pyre continued to stare out a window, his orange flame flickering. "That's more of a justification and a rationalization, than anything. I asked Night to conduct the search for him because if I'm going to get what I want, I'll get it in style."

Nyx glared, and a few of Pyre's meager possessions started floating about. "Father, are you serious? We don't _need_ information, and we don't _want_ it either. What we need - what we _want_ \- is for the world to unite under our banner. This is a waste of time."

Pyre let out a faint pulse of ghost energy. The items fell to the floor and shattered, thousands of Poke falling to waste.

After Nyx shrunk back, chastised, Pyre deigned to speak. "Nyx, I have many goals in life. One - to destroy the dark presence within the Miasma, to leave it pure. I want none to suffer what we all have suffered at its hands. Two - to bring Inverted Pokemon to not an equal standing than the non-Inverted, but higher. Greater."

Nyx was nodding. "Yeah, that's HUMANITY's goal. Everyone is well aware of that, father." She frowned. "But why-?"

"Nyx, why do you think I let you torture?"

Nyx grew silent.

"Both of us know it doesn't work, that it's a waste of time. Torturing someone will only make them hate you, making pointless enemies. Any information they know can be dragged out of their head with psychic powers. Now, tell me, why do I let you torture?"

"I…"

"Why do I let Night run her prison, Nyx. It is inefficient - there are many more ways to use mass Hypnosis, and running a joy-prison isn't at the top. Why do I let your sister run that prison?"

Nyx didn't say anything.

"I let you do it because you want to do it. Not because it is 'efficient', or any trite nonsense like that. No, I let you do those things because you want to do them. Time on Naixe is short, ever short. May I be unaging, but I will never be immortal. I will cherish the time I have left."

Nys, introspective, sent forward a rebuttal. "Yet, you waste it here, languishing in this room."

Pyre's eyes flashed.

Then he began to laugh. "Alright, alright. Nyx, you're right. I _do_ need to do something." He began to float out of the room. As he did so, something remarkable occurred. The dark orange of his light began to brighten to a light purple. His dark blue eyes lightened to a pale yellow. His white frame blackened.

Soon, what appeared to be an average Chandelure appeared in the room.

"There is something _I_ can do. It's about time I got to visit Jeden City."


	13. 13 - A Broken Heart

(Tom)

Fireballs!

A volley of Flame Bursts shot my way. I ducked and weaved my way through them. I had tried absorbing them with Flash Fire before. While it worked, it also left me open for a Confuse Ray or a Night Shade.

That would spell the end of the battle. So, I did what any reasonable Pokémon would do - not fall into the trap.

Then Alice slammed me into place by an Imprison. My dodges didn't matter in the end - Alice's Imprison was strong enough to overcome my Ghost-type and lock me in place. I struggled as she moved up to me without a care in the world.

"Tom, I'll give you five seconds to free yourself from the Imprison, then I'll start attacking you with concussive force."

I continued to struggle in vain as the seconds ticked by. Alice sighed.

"Oh well. Next time?" She then started charging a Shadow Ball.

Oh no…

My mind raced as it tried to find a way out of this situation. Alice didn't pull any punches and accepted no forfeits. If I didn't escape, she would hit me with another Shadow Ball, on my wick (weak?) spot. That would hurt, extreme pain tolerance or not.

Okay… Psychic-type was weak to the Ghost-type, right?

"Fire!"

With half a second left to dodge, I let out a large burst of Ghost aura. It radiated outward and shattered the imprisoning Imprison. I managed to orient my body so that the Shadow Ball would hit my wax rather than my wick. It still stung, but it was nowhere near the pain I would face if the Shadow Ball hit my wick.

"Alright, pause. Tim, why did it take you so long to figure out that you had to expel Ghost energy to escape the Imprison?"

I flushed. "Well, it didn't occur to me?"

Alice sighed. "Ugh. You have the exact opposite of Koga's old problem. Koga, when he was younger, wouldn't think in battle. He'd fire Water Pulse upon Water Pulse at me. It'd keep me on my tip, sure, but he would never use anything else to supplement that. In the end, all I had to use were some basic strategies, and he'd fall in an instant."

"You, though, plan so much and so often that you don't use your battle instincts. You wait around and think of a new strategy to use while I use that free time to recover or prepare to wallop you. You need to think on your feet more, get a little more active and dynamic in the battles. You know, experiment, gain experience, stuff like that. Anything would be better than sitting on your hindquarters like a Ducklett on Nip."

"I… how? How am I supposed to be more active in my battle?" I asked, pleading a little bit.

Alice gave me an unamused look. "Move. Don't stay in a spot, don't space out for strategy. Stay engaged with the battle, so you don't find yourself lost with your opponent leading to your doom. It's the simple stuff, Tim."

She walked back over to the edge of the ring. "Alright, Tim. We'll do this one more time for tonight. The sun's going to come up pretty soon in an hour, so we don't have that much time to waste. You've been a good student, so if you impress me, I'll give you a reward. And hey, if you can show some improvement for the next match, I'll tell you a little secret, okay?"

My no-longer-existent ears perked up. "What kind of reward? What kind of secret?"

Alice smiled. "The reward is something you'll have to wait for. The secret is the kind where you'll hear about it anyway. You'll want to hear it beforehand so it doesn't come out of left field and you have only a little time to react."

Now it had piqued my interest. Alice had admitted that it would be shocking. I'd have to do my best to impress her to find it out a little early.

Oh, and for that mysterious reward.

We stood at opposite corners of a little fighting circle Alice had made.

"On my marks! Three! Two!"

I readied myself. I would show her how far I've come. No more hesitation, no more worrying. Onward!

"One! Go!"

I shot forward, weaving my way through the initial wave of Fire Bursts. I felt the chains of Imprison try to weave around me. A burst of ghost energy later, and the psychic chains faltered.

As I closed the distance and tried to pelt Alice with various Night Shades and Hexes, she whistled. "Well, this is a little better. But… Napalm."

Upon hearing that word, I retreated as fast as possible. Napalm was dangerous - as it was poison, Flash Fire had less of an impact.

She released the burning gas. I shrunk with a Minimize and continued my assault.

Then I felt something dark and creepy enter me. I only had a second to marvel in a light-as-air feeling before the pain started.

Glacia's Sand Attack had done a number on me. My wax was still recovering from the attack. I guess the Miasma had something to do with it. I don't know.

Black electricity raced up and down me and I shook with pain. Alice looked at me, the battle slowing to a halt.

"Nice job, Tom, but I still caught you off guard. You reacted well to the Napalm, but you weren't able to deal with my instant Shadow Ball.

The black electricity faded away. I found myself able to stand up, though much more exhausted than I was before. "That… that's nothing like Glacia's Shadow Ball. Hers explodes on impact."

Alice smirked. "Yeah, it's not supposed to do that. Explosions are beautiful and all, but bodies should absorb Shadow Balls. They wreak more internal havoc than external.

I stood up, my stance unsteady. "I… Anyway, I'm not done. Let's go again."

"Thought you'd never ask."

This time, though, I moved backward as fast as possible. There was no way I was going to beat Alice unless I thought of a strategy - reflexes are nice and all, but I need time to think.

I went on autopilot as I fought Alice. As we fought, I dodged, fired a couple of warning attacks, and Minimized for the Napalm. I was good enough to keep Alice at bay while I planned.

Over the last month and a half, I've learned many more powerful techniques. The Wonder Chest was remarkable. It cut my need for training time to a third. Considering how we inanimates don't have muscle, we have to take time to grow.

I fired some Night Shades and Hexes at her while I strategized. She dodged with grace and began to smile, although I wasn't privy to the reason why she had been smiling.

Night Shade and Hex were both some of the new moves I had learned since graduation. I had learned a total of six new moves, which Alice told me was quite an accomplishment. Of course, it did help that we of the Litwick line learned a lot of moves, but still.

I noticed that Alice was dodging much more often when I used moves like Night Shade. I used Imprison to hold her down while firing more Night Shades at her.

Besides Night Shade and Hex, I've learned Will-O-Wisp, Flame Burst, Imprison and Confuse Ray.

Confuse Ray! If I used Night Shades and Hexes, it would destroy the Imprison. Confuse Rays, though, would leave it intact!

As Alice broke through an earlier Imprison with ease, I closed the distance between us. I fired some Night Shades and Hexes at her, keeping her at bay and driving her into a corner. She could escape from this, she's done it before. That's not what I want, though.

Once she's let me back her into a corner, I fire a Confuse Ray at her.

She clutches her head and starts screaming. "No! No! Get… Get out of my head! Argh!"

Guilt rising within me, I try to summon the energy to form another Night Shade so I could knock her out. No matter how hard I try, though, the energy evades and escapes me.

I close my eyes, readying myself to concentrate.

"Gotcha." Then I felt pain.

I gritted my… I don't have teeth anymore. I held my tong- what do I have? Either way, I open my eyes.

Alice was looking as uninjured as usual, smirking again. "Rule #0 of fights, Tim; Never close your eyes until after you leave the battlefield. Heck, never close them at all - we don't have to sleep."

I sighed. "You tricked me, right?"

"It wasn't that hard to figure out what you were trying to do. You still aren't used to manipulating ghost energy to that precision. You were preparing for it at least ten seconds before you fired it."

"So why'd you do nothing?"

"Tim, the best way to avoid a trap is to spring it. You avoid any backup plans your enemy may have and can turn the situation to your advantage with ease. All I had to do was push the energy out of my body and scream a little bit. Then, when I sensed you started to gather ghost energy, I struck with a Shadow Ball."

"Oh… I guess I failed your test, then."

"Nope! You passed, with flying colors to boot."

I stared. "How? I fell for your counter-trap, hook, line, and sinker."

"That trap was an easy one to fall for, Tom. Especially if you're inexperienced in fighting Confused enemies. You need more battle experience, which is something I can't give to you."

I nodded - the Wonder Chest wasn't able to simulate battles. If we had some spare time after Kavol finishes the radar, I'll ask him to upgrade it, if he can.

"Anyway, you passed because you were a lot more proactive and reflexive than before. You stopped thinking about your every movement and let your training, meager as it is, kick in. And using that spare brain space for some strategizing is always a good thing. "

"Thanks." I smiled. "You uh… you said something about a reward and a secret?"

Alice rubbed her hands together. "Yeah. It's about time you got your Link Box back."

"... hey! You never gave back the Link Box!" I was a little distraught. "I forgot you took it - what have you been doing with it?" It had cost quite a bit of money, even if I had gotten it for free. Plus, along with the rest of Kavol's inventions, it seemed useful.

Alice waved me off. "Relax, Tom. I was testing it out, making sure it's up to snuff. My team and I did a little bit of experimenting with it over the last two months. We've made some real strides toward figuring it out. I have to meet its creator - it's a real work of art."

"I can introduce you to him." I offered, with some caution. "I mean, I do know him. I'm sure he'd like to meet you, too. He likes making friends."

Kavol was an… interesting roommate. For some reason, he wakes up every few nights or so. He scribbles incomprehensible gibberish onto a page before falling asleep. Well, from what I heard, anyway. He seemed to understand what he was doing, though. He claimed that he made big strides whenever this happened. We decided to take it at face-value.

Alice clapped her hands together in glee, snickering. "Oh, that sounds wonderful! I'm pretty sure Koga would like to meet him as well. He's been raving on and on about how awesome the invention is."

She stopped snickering with a smile etched on her face. "Still, I need to retrieve the Link Box, anyway. Since you'll be using this with your team, I'll want them to hear my instructions on how to use this as well. I'll get some directions to your Base, and I'll show you there with the rest of my team after the assembly earlier today. Got it?"

I coughed. "Alice, we... we have a guest at our Base."

Alice raised her brows. "Hm? Do they mind Ghost-types?"

"N-no?"

"Then what's the problem?" Alice seemed confused. "I'm pretty sure they won't mind, will they?"

"No, it's just… I… you shouldn't... never mind." I faltered.

Alice groaned. "Look, Tom, if you don't want us to come, say the word."

"No, No! You can come, you can come! Our Base… it's a little messy, don't worry about it!" I lied, hoping she wouldn't pry further. "Look, I'll clean before assembly, don't worry! You're free to come any time!"

Alice snickered, which fell into a full-blown laugh. "Tom, if that's all, don't worry! The rot Koga's puddles cause… well, our base isn't that pretty either!"

I laughed with her, nervous. I'd have to tell the rest of the group, especially Kavol, about this. We'd have to hide the materials for the radar. We trusted Team Zelda wasn't hypnotized, considering the Ghost on their team (Alice). Still, anything could happen. Especially considering the Corsola Breach (as we were calling it now).

Ugh… why can't I grow a spine?

Alice waved as she floated through the walls of the building. "Well, I'll be seeing you later, Tom."

I sighed. Alice still hasn't taught me how to do that. I've wanted to learn to phase through walls for a long time now. Alice says I'm still too inexperienced with the use of ghost energy for it to be safe for more.

Still, the meeting was starting soon. I'd have to go warn everyone about Alice visiting right away.

Ducking and weaving through the dense crowds of busy Venturers, I made my way to our base. I made my way inside.

Naetle, who was waking up, looked surprised at my appearance. "Tom, why are you here? I'd have thought you'd be waiting for us outside."

I shook my head. "Today's a little different, Naetle. I have to tell everyone something important."

The sleepiness left Naetle's eyes. "Is it about the search? Has Night found out?" He asked like machine fire. Hearing about the commotion, Glacia and Merla entered through the connecting door.

"Tom? What are you doing here?" Glacia asked, confused. Kavol paused in his inventing. He said that he had already built the main frame of the radar and that it wouldn't take much longer for completion. I hoped it was correct.

"It's about the search, guys. Team Zelda's coming over for a visit."

"What?!" Glacia shouted in surprise. "Why did you invite them over?!"

I shook my head. "Alice invited herself over. She wants to show us what she's found out about the Linkbox?"

Kavol set aside the incomplete radar. "What do you mean?" Kavol asked, curious.

"She and Team Zelda have been experimenting with the Link Box. They're coming over after the daily assembly to return it and share the results."

Kavol lit up with glee. "Are you sure?" He began buzzing around, fretting. "Oh, I can't help but wonder if it's held up. My moves aren't that strong, so I don't know if its durable enough to handle something of an experienced team's caliber…"

Kavol fretted a lot as well. Once he settled into our little group, Kavol began to show some changes in personality. He didn't show the boisterousness and exuberance that he had before. I suspect it was some sort of persona he put on to attract customers. He normalized a lot after integrating himself. He retained some elements of his old personality.

To tell the truth, I felt like Kavol was like Shift. They both lacked self-confidence. Shift became rather loyal and supportive to his friends because of it. Kavol tended to hide behind a masquerade of pomposity, though.

Speaking of Shift, I missed him. He was often a voice of common sense and reason within the group. He didn't have any traumatic background or amnesia or time travel or Inversion or anything like that. No, Shift was your average Steel Type, albeit a bit more emotional than the usual apathy.

Unfortunately, I, nor the rest of my team, had seen hide or hair of Shift since the graduation exam. It had been a month, and I was beginning to feel a little concern. I had seen Team Knight scattered around the Base, with Catal and co. towing around the ever-resilient Ivan. I had seen the Rai-Stop-Lyli trio, as well as Bamel and Kase. Glacia and Merla had even seen Kaori in the library, although Kaori was doing her best to avoid the two.

But Shift? Not at all. I was considering foul play, of the Night kind.

"Tom? Tom?!" Glacia had been shouting. I shook my head, ridding myself of those wandering thoughts.

"Uh, sorry? What is it?"

Glacia glared at me, cross. "You've been staring into space, Tom." She walked over to me and wiped some drool off my chin. "Concentrate, would you? We've been asking whether Alice knows Kavol built the Link Box." She paused so I could answer her question.

"She doesn't know. Well, I don't think she does. They've never met, after all."

Glacia sighed in relief. "Good. Look, Kavol is going to hide the radar. We'll make sure he doesn't say anything during their visit, so he doesn't tip them off."

She turned to Kavol. "Oh, and please don't tell them you made it. They'll become way too curious and become interested in you. You need to keep a low profile, got it?"

Kavol nodded.

"Um…" Naetle piped up. "Shouldn't we be getting to assembly?"

Glacia stared at him. "Are you serious? How is that important?"

Naetle shrugged. "I'm pretty sure they'll figure something is off if we don't show up, considering that it's mandatory."

Glacia continued to stare, then sighed. "Look, fine." She woke up Merla, who had been napping on the sidelines. She had mellowed out over the past couple of weeks. I couldn't figure out why.

"G… Glacia?" That was another thing - she had stopped calling her 'Lady'. That was weird to begin with, but it had been the norm for the month and a half I have known Merla. A few days after Kavol moved in, though, she began to move from apathy to a more trusting demeanor.

I didn't know why, exactly, the change was occurring. But the strange strictness and pessimism Merla wore like a cloak began to erode away. A month ago, she would have never even considered napping like this.

"Merla, we have a bit of an issue." Yup, there's the old Merla shining through. She adopted a serious expression on her face as Glacia filled her in on what was going to happen after assembly.

Merla gave me an unimpressed look, raising her eyebrows. "Tom, couldn't you tell her 'no'?"

"Look, it was sudden, I couldn't think of an excuse, I'm sorry…" I began to blubber. The gravity of what I had done opened itself to me. If someone like Myga found out and accidentally blabbed something to the wrong person...

Glacia walked over to me and put a paw over my mouth, shushing me with a gentle smile. "Tom. Look, it's not going to be that bad. How likely is it that they're going to find out about the plan? Kavol is going to hide the radar, and we won't mention it. Don't worry - all this is going to be about is the Link Box. Nothing else."

I sighed. "Right, right… thanks. So, where is Kavol going to hide the radar? It's everywhere." I asked. The mainframe was lying on a tarp, a little grimy. The parts were strewn all over the floor.

"In our room." Glacia gestured. "Kavol is moving the parts to our bedroom so that they don't see the project." Kavol was, as Glacia said, moving the parts of the radar to the girls' room.

"Guys," Naetle coughed, startling me. He had a strained smile on his face. "We should be going to the mandatory assembly so we don't seem suspicious."

Glacia colored. "Right." She shook Merla, who had been dozing. "Merla, get up. How late did you sleep last night?"

Merla yawned. "I… I couldn't fall asleep."

Her change was still as bizarre as ever. Even after a week or two, I still couldn't get over it.

As Naetle and Merla headed out the door, I whispered to Glacia. "Okay, Glacia, what happened? Merla would never nod off like that before. Why has she been like this?"

Glacia whispered back as we continued to walk. "We're getting too stressed. Merla was having nightmares for days after we found out about Night. I had to do something!"

I was in slight shock. "N-nightmares? I never noticed."

Glacia turned an unamused look upon me. "You leave each night for training with Alice. I would be more surprised if you had noticed." She sighed. "I don't know if Merla has actually ever unwinded before. From what she's said, the Miasma never allowed her to relax. She's never taken a break before, either. I've introduced her to something actually relaxing for a change. It's done wonders."

"She's… never had any kind of fun before?"

Glacia nodded, a little sorrow coloring her face. "Yeah. The Miasma has ruined her life until now. Even when I removed the Miasma from her, Merla hadn't allowed herself to unwind. She shifted her focus to helping me return to the past. I'm growing a hope she'll be able to handle life on her own by the time I go back."

As we talked, we walked through the hallways of the Base. Soon we appeared in the main lobby. There were still a few stragglers, including us, who hadn't gone to the assembly yet. They were making the way there, though. After all, the Psychic types who located the teams for attendance weren't very kind if you've missed a day.

Soon we arrived in the Amphitheatre, where the assembly was on line seven of the daily mantra. Naetle gritted his beak, as he always did. He had told me the butchering of the verses irritated him beyond belief.

After a few more lines of the mantra, Captain Falcon cleared his throat.

"Ahem! As you may know already, the Ring Break is upon us. We will be leaving tomorrow. For those new, this is a perfect opportunity to test your mettle." Captain Falcon remarked in a glib tone, shifting a glance onto Team Ness. Glacia and Naetle's eyes narrowed as I shifted around in place. I felt a little nervous as many teams' eyes shifted onto us. Merla continued to nap.

"The Ring Break is going to be our attempt at breaking one of the Rings. Need I remind you, if we succeed, huge swathes of land and bounties of treasure will follow." There was a deluge of cheering at this. Even Glacia looked interested, and Naele looked a little misty-eyed at the descriptions.

It sounded rather fun, too. There were 100 Rings surrounding our land. They were large circular Mystery Dungeons, each sectioning off a piece of Naixe. The Rings separated large chunks of the world, making the Maps rather patchwork.

As the Rings were Mystery Dungeons, though, you could clear them. And if even one Pokémon passed through a Ring, that Ring would shatter. The Venturers have shattered 40 Rings over the past couple of centuries as a result. That left 60 remaining.

"This will be this region of Naixe's most recent attempt at breaking the Rings. There have been a few coalitions formed over the years in an attempt to break a Ring, but none have succeeded. I have faith in our Base - we will break this Ring!"

There were cheers resounding throughout the room. I had to wonder if we should worry about this. Captain Falcon was under Night's control right now, and I'm pretty sure Night doesn't care about the Rings. Why was there going to be a Ring Breaking now?

"Our most powerful teams will act as our Ring Breakers. These teams will be Team Ryu, Team Ink, Team Pit, Team Shulk, and… Team Cruel!"

With that, there was a large clutter as a few Pokémon stepped forth. The teams that Captain Falcon had called forth stepped onto the stage. They were rather interesting if what I had heard was correct.

Team Ryu was a team of powerful Dragons, headed by a smug Druddigon. Team Ink was ruthless yet kind; their leader a graceful, yet creepy Malamar. (Once Glacia saw it, she slapped her head and muttered 'Calamanero'. I had no idea what that was about).

Team Pit was the Base's avian team, dealing with quick and safe travel in high to reach places. Their leader, a Braviary, was infamous for being gullible. The thing was, it was so easy to fool her that denying calling her gullible one time was enough to get her off your back.

Team Shulk was a team of intelligent psychics. They pulled overtime for the base, drafting most of the missions during the night in shifts. It was the one team anyone could join if they were strong enough. Team Shulk filled the stage, having plenty of Gothitelle, Grumpig, and Espeon. Their leader was an Alakazam.

Team Cruel...

I spared a glance toward Merla. Glacia had confided in me about Merla's past. Merla had a brother, one that joined a Base. Looking at the intense glare the Volcarona sent toward the now napping Merla, I knew which Base one he went to.

I can only hope Team Cruel didn't actually signify that the Volcarona was cruel.

As the Pokémon climbed the stage, Captain Falcon bowed to them. "You will be taking the most dangerous journey of all, trying to break through the ring. If it is at all possible, remain after the assembly so that I may speak to your teams."

The teams assembled on the stage nodded. The Volcarona, though, never took his eyes off Merla.

Captain Falcon turned back to the crowd of Venturers. "Yesterday was the last day to sign up for the Ring Breaking. If you have not signed up already, you will not be able to sign up now." Then his glare turned hard, and he glanced over to us. "There is mandatory participation for those already signed up, for accounting purposes."

As there were groans heard all around the Amphitheatre, Glacia and I breathed a sigh of relief. The Ring Breaking sounded fun and all, but they had more important things to worry about. to be more precise, their own time travel and Night problem.

The thing was, Kavol was getting close to completing the radar. Every day it would take for us to get back would mean an extra day for Night to find Sky.

Luckily, we had already lost their chance to get into the Ring Breaking. Unless Captain Falcon decided to change the rules to force us to go, then we're home free.

"Dismissed."

Glacia turned to me. "Go talk to Alice, see if you can delay her some more. We can't allow anyone to see the project. I'll go and try to help Kavol hide the rest of the radar parts. And Tom - try to stay determined. The radar is more important than your friendship with Alice."

I knew that, but I still had a heavy pit in his stomach. Alice was incredible, and not only in battle. After a couple of months working together, she knew me inside and out. She'd be able to see through my attempts at stalling.

I pulled myself together. "No problem," I lied, feeling guilty. "I'll handle it."

Glacia nodded. "Right, I'm counting on you." As I headed toward where Team Zelda was conversing, I heard Glacia shake Merla. "Merla, wake up. Go to the medical bay and get Vinia to come and help us..."

After that, they fell out of earshot. I made my way to where Alice, Koga, and Myga were sitting.

"... can't believe you lost it! How do you lose something so valuable? You know how much that thing is worth, Myga? It's worth thousands of Poke!"

I came to a stop. If I was correct...

"Look, Alice, calm down." Koga leaned backward on a wall, twirling a Water Shuriken he had formed around his finger. "We don't who exactly lost it. All we know is that it's no longer in our storage."

Alice paced back and forth. "Is it in our rooms, then?"

Myga shook her mandibles back and forth. "I'm telling you, I don't know where it is! I cleaned our room last night, you were there with me! It wasn't there either. In fact, I was looking for it as we were cleaning."

Alice stopped pacing. "Are you saying you knew it was gone beforehand, and you didn't tell us?!" Koga facepalmed as Myga continued to turn red.

"Are you serious, Alice? I didn't think it was that big of an issue! And why do you care so much, you said that Tom bought it from some store. All you have to do is pay back Tom."

Alice's eyes turned red. "Oh, alright. Do you have a spare 9000 Poke lying around, so we can pay him back? That's how much the Link Box cost."

Myga's mandibles gaped, and I saw Koga fall into a cold sweat.

"Hi, guys!" The three members of Team Zelda whipped around at my greeting. I was feeling cheery. "What's up!"

Alice put up a feeble smile before it tore itself down. "Ugh. Look, Tom, I'm sorry, but lost the-"

"The Link Box is missing, right?" I couldn't wipe the grin off his face.

"Y-yeah..." Alice's eyes narrowed so much. "Why are you so happy, Tom? It costs a lot of money, right?"

I nodded. "Yeah, but don't worry, I'm good friends with the maker of the Link Box! He'll make me a new one in no time."

"For free?" Alice pressed on, a light of greed shining in her eyes.

"Well, not for free. But yeah, he'll give me a discount for a new Link Box, so you can pay me back for the discounted money!"

Alice and Myga's eyes brightened. "That's great!" Alice wiped her face. "Well, we won't have to pay for the full 9000 Poke, now. We still lost it, though. We're sorry."

While the two females of Team Zelda were sighing in relief, Koga was staring at me with a hint of suspicion. I realized how suspicious it must look to be completely overjoyed at losing the Link Box. I was definitely happy, as they wouldn't have to go to the room and unravel the plan.

Nonetheless, I tried to affix a look of sorrow onto his face to pacify Koga. Koga's eyes only narrowed further.

"I mean, uh... No! Not the Link Box!" I tried to act normal. The smile fell from Alice and Myga's faces. I realized, that now they were growing suspicious themselves.

The group was silent for a small while longer before Alice shook her head. "Anyway, we're still going to your room, Tom."

I could feel my waxy heart-stopping. "W-what?"

Alice gave me a large smile. "Well, we'll have to get used to each other before the Breaking, you know."

I fell into another cold sweat. "What do you mean, 'before the Breaking'? Alice, what is happening?"

Alice grew a look of concern on her face. "Well, aren't you guys going to the Breaking?"

I shook my head. "No, we only found out about the Breaking today. A-and Team Ness isn't ready for something like the Breaking, anyway. We're still a rookie team."

Kogs huffed. "But you guys were signed up for the... " Koga sighed. "It's another sign-up prank."

I was feeling out of my depth. "What do you mean?"

"The Base found out that some team had signed up one of the other teams for the Breaking without permission. Captain Falcon gave the pranking team a stern lecture, then let them go. The pranked team removed themselves from the list. The prank team went and did it again, with you guys as the target."

I suspected foul play.

"Well, we're not ready!" I spit out. I didn't know if that was true or not, but

I couldn't help but say it either way. "We're not strong enough, we can't go!"

Koga gave me a serious look. "Then you guys better go talk to Captain Falcon soon, so you guys can remove yourselves from the list. It might be too late, though. Captain Falcon said the list was already set in stone and those on the list can't change their mind on going. If you don't get his mercy, you'll have to come with us."

Alice grabbed me around my middle. "If you do come, you won't have to worry. I've already applied to Captain Falcon to have you guys as part of our group during the Breaking. There's a good chance that if you do come you'll get to spend the trip training with me!"

She came in a little closer and whispered in my ear. "That was the little secret I was going to tell you guys. Come on, give the Breaking a chance. You'll do great."

It all sounded nice, but I wished that wouldn't have to be his consolation.

Myga approached me. "Now that we're not going to your room, we'll be heading to the Mission Office. We'll try to put in a good word for you and try to persuade Captain Falcon to let you guys withdraw from the Breaking."

I nodded. "Thanks." I felt a little sick, though. As the saying went, 'Out of the frying pan, into the fire."

* * *

I made my way to Team Ness's Base. I knocked a few times on the door and waited for one of my teammates to answer.

There was a cavalcade of shouting, a cry of 'Hide it now!', and the door slammed open, showing a harried Vinia.

"Oh, hello, Team... Zelda?" Vinia's fake sugar-rotting smile fell away at the site of only me at the door. "Uh, Tom? Not that I'm complaining or anything, but where's Team Zelda?"

"They're not coming." There were a few audible sighs of relief before I made my way into the threshold.

I sat down as the various members of Team Ness, barring a (still?) napping Merla, cheered. I couldn't bring myself to be happy, though.

A great big smile stretched across Glacia's face. "Not bad, Tom! You managed to scare them off from coming here. I mean, we wasted a bit of time with the whole hiding the radar thing, but them not coming here is more than worth it!"

I sighed. "Look, we're not out of the woods yet."

Naetle, who had been cheering a lot less than the two harried females of the team, noticed what I had said. "Tom, what do you mean?"

The cheers of the two quieted down as I explained. "You guys remember hearing about the Breaking from the assembly today, right?"

Naetle nodded. "Yeah, I remember. It sounds a bit like an expedition I went on in Wigglytuff's Guild. It was to a lake, and we had to travel across mountains and forests and..."

Vinia shook Naetle back to reality. "Focus, Naetle. Anyway, you guys can't go. The radar is more important than the Breaking."

"Vinia, I don't know if we have a choice." The mood dropped.

"What exactly do you mean, Tom? Tell us what you found out, okay?"

So that's what I did.

* * *

After I told the five other members of the project, including the now awake Merla, there was a hubbub.

Vinia grabbed her hair. "Dang it! Mother, why can't you make this easy for us!"

Merla grew stoic (which relieved me as it was a slight return to normality). "Lady Glacia, we have to stop this." She glanced over at a silent Kavol. "The radar is getting close to completion, right? We can't afford to waste any more time."

Glacia called for silence. "Guys, we're going to have to hope Night and Captain Falcon will allow us to stay at the Base. It's a long shot, but it might happen." She turned to me. "You said that Team Zelda is going to help us get out of this?"

"They said that they'll try." Still, I worried. "Glacia, what if we're forced to go on the Breaking?"

Glacia frowned. "Well, we have a few options. We could run away from the Base now - but no, the radar's still incomplete and it's too heavy."

Vinia piped up. "I could teleport it, but I need a clear destination for that. Do you guys have an idea where Kavol could continue building the radar?"

There were no answers. I thought about Kavol's old store. It was still silent and empty. The problem was that there were Pokémon living near it, and they would have already gotten used to silence by now.

Kavol's work was loud.

They would be almost begging for Night to come and take a look. I took a look at Vinia and saw that she had come to the same conclusion

Naetle sighed. "So, if Kavol has to stay, then we can't run away from the Base."

There was nothing but silence. Kavol was the linchpin here, but he was also the most restricted out of everyone. If we didn't have someplace for Kavol to work in, he wouldn't be able to build the radar.

Kavol still didn't see the problem. "Why don't I stay here? I mean, the Breaking won't affect me, correct?"

Vinia shook her head. "You need food, right? Well, the personnel of the Base is going to the Breaking. Ms. Kiss is going on the Breaking, as well as the cooks. You won't be able to get food, so that'll be a problem."

"Can't you Teleport, Vinia?" Our eyes turned to Merla, who looked unamused with the whole matter. "I'm somewhat sure Teleportation will solve a lot of our problems."

Vinia opened her mouth, then closed it. "I... didn't think of that."

Merla then shrugged. "Then what's the big deal? Every morning or night, Vinia can sneak some food away from the cooks and Teleport back to the Base. Kavol could even come with us in secret if you think about it."

"... so, we're going?" Naetle asked.

Merla gave him a strange look. "Do you have enough money saved up to buy food for the entirety of the Breaking? We don't have much of a choice, either way. If anything, the Breaking will help us."

None of us had thought about it like that. Vinia sighed. "This is going to be exhausting for me, right?"

Naetle seemed to have an epiphany and began to burst with excitement. "You know what this means, guys?"

Glacia looked over to him with a degree of annoyance. "No, Naetle, I don't know what it means."

"With Vinia's Teleportation, we don't have to worry about being late! After Kavol finishes the radar, Vinia can Teleport us all back to the Base! There is no downside to the Breaking." His eyes grew misty.

I was somewhat sure Naetle's nostalgia was blinding him. None the less, I remained quiet. Vinia, for the most part, looked annoyed. Merla was in her usual silent state, while Glacia was smiling in an awkward way.

"Um... if I may make a request?"

Our eyes turned to him. "Yeah, Kavol?"

"If Vinia's going to be Teleporting so much, is it possible I could follow you guys on the Breaking? I mean, I've been in here for a couple of weeks now. I've only moved from this room to go to the bathroom. Can I... I want to see nature again."

The room was silent. Then Vinia sighed.

"Sure. I mean, if you want to visit outside, I can manage that for you, Kavol. You can't be near us, as someone might find you, but I can manage to let you walk around in nature a little bit. We have five minutes now, you want to do it?"

Kavol nodded, eager, and Tom realized how much cabin fever had affected him.

After the two teleported away, Glacia turned to face the rest of Team Ness.

"We should go tell Captain Falcon that we're going on the Breaking. We'll have to go get our missions, anyway." She looked fatigued. "Guys, we're going to have to pull ourselves together. These will be our last days before we have to find Sky. We've been working at this for a long time now. We have to make sure we don't screw it up."

Glacia's short speech wasn't very motivational. The mist left Naetle's eyes, while Merla had softened her features somewhat.

"But anyway, we should be going to the Mission Office." Glacia opened the Base's door. "Let's get our last mission before the Breaking."

With that, we left for the Mission Office.

* * *

There was an acrid smell in the air. It smelled a little nice, and a little familiar as well, for some reason I couldn't identify.

Glacia didn't look as relieved. "Is... something burning?"

Besides the burning stench, I could hear raised voices beyond the door to the Mission Office. I gulped, wondering where on Naixe the smell was coming from. Tentative, I opened the door to the Mission Office.

"... who gave her authorization to do that!" Captain Falcon was a far cry from his usual self. He was raging and crowing, a large stream of flame erupting from his wrists. Milla was cowering in the corner, with no decorum whatsoever.

What was most intriguing, though, was the Pokémon Captain Falcon was talking to. From what I could recognize, it was a Chandelure, like the one Ms. Kiss had shown me back in his second day at the Base.

The Chandelure spoke with a calm and measured voice. "Captain Falcon, we will be sending our own delegation to assist you. Something as large as an attempted Ring Breaking will need help, and our Base would like to assist.

Captain Falcon paced across the office, leaving footprints of soot where he stomped. "How could Captain Phon think so little of us! We're one of the best Bases in Naixe - we don't need help from your third-rate Base!"

The Chandelure opened his mouth to speak, but Captain Falcon cut him off. "Tell me, brat. What's your name, and how long have you been an explorer?"

Nobody moved.

"My name is Pyrrhus, but I prefer to go by Pyre. I've been an Explorer for twelve years under Captain Phon." Pyre drew his breath. "I must ask, why would you like to know?"

Captain Falcon narrowed his eyes. "Correct me if I'm wrong. Captain Phon sent you as the messenger because I like your evolutionary line, correct?"

Pyre nodded, his eyes not budging. "Yes, that is the case."

"Well, I don't like your line that much. You and that Alice girl have drained my temper." The Captain sighed, before straightening himself up. "Well, it doesn't matter. I assume you've already made preparation for joining us. Have you come only to notify me of your accompaniment?"

Pyre nodded again.

"Well, there's not much I can do to stop you. Though it pains me, your Base will come with ours."

Mill breathed a sigh of relief as Pyre nodded, a small smile on his face. "Don't worry, Captain Falcon. We will do nothing but help. The Rings are Naixe's problem, not our individual Bases."

Captain Falcon waved Pyre away. "Whatever." For a second, I thought I saw a smile stretch across his face before it disappeared.

Pyre headed to the door and saw us. "Is this one of your new teams, Captain Falcon? They all look rather young." None of us said a word.

"Oh, yes, Team Ness. They're one of the newer Teams our Base has to offer, and they've been doing their missions without any fault. I must say, I can't understand where your lack of confidence comes from."

The rest of Team Ness's stares burned into the back of my head as I grew a little sheepish. There may have been a few things I had forgotten to mention.

Pyre studied us. "This team looks rather unique to me. A Ghost-type, and an Inverted Pokémon to boot." He then changed tracks. "Litwick, Inverted Larvesta, what are your names?"

"Tom." Pyre's eyes widened a little bit, and his eyes grew a little misty. "Pyre...?"

Pyre shook himself back to reality, his eyes growing sharper. "Yes, my name is Pyre. I'm glad you heard that, as it saves me the trouble of introductions." He turned to Merla. "And you?"

"Merla." Merla bit out. Her voice still held a hint of acid, although it was gone around the rest of Team Ness.

Pyre nodded. "I'll see you around soon." He turned to Naetle and Glacia. "Out of curiosity, what are your names' as well?"

Glacia had been turning red, for some reason I couldn't identify. "I, uh... my name is Glacia. And this here is Naetle." She ducked her head and smiled. "Nice to meet you."

Pyre smiled. "Nice to meet you, too." He then exited.

Captain Falcon coughed. "Team Zelda came in earlier today, saying that some Team had signed you up as a prank." Milla was the only one who actually believed that. "If this is true, it is rather unfortunate. Anyway, there's nothing we can do about it now - the list is set."

Naetle nodded. "Yes, sir, we understand. May we have our last mission before the Breaking?"

Captain Falcon shook his head. "Sorry, but we're not giving out any missions to the Teams leaving. Today's the day you should use to prepare for the Breaking if you haven't already. You'll need the time."

We were all silent. "Oh," Naetle said, a little downcast. "We understand."

We then took our leave.

* * *

(Alice - The Next Day)

"Hey, Alice?"

We were in the middle of the final preparations for the Breaking. Ti-no, Tom and I didn't have another session tonight. As it turned out we had nowhere near enough supplies in our storage. We had to go on a long shopping trip to get the stuff we needed.

On the way, I tried to look for Electricals. It occurred to me that I could go and find the store myself. While I wouldn't be buying, I would definitely want to see other creations from the maker of the Link Box. Unfortunately, all I could find was a burnt building.

I spat a little fire in Myga's direction because she was eyeing at me a little weird. She was doing that a little bit more often as if she was trying to find something weird in us. I brought myself back to attention. "Uh, yeah?"

Myga was already putting out the small embers I had launched at her feet. She had already gotten used to this sort of reaction. "Alice, did you remember everything?"

I raised an eyebrow. "We packed it all together, Myga. You were there, why don't you ask yourself."

Myga colored a little bit. " I... ugh, nevermind." She sniffed. "Anyway, we're going to the Amphitheatre, right? I have to go get a drink of water, so I'll meet you two later." With that, she scurried off.

Koga yawned. "Man, I'm tired." He rubbed his eyes. He had elected to spend the night training, as opposed to the smart thing to do - like sleeping.

"Hope your hours of training paid off, Koga. You relearned Water Gun?"

Koga stretched. "Nah, not going to bother. Now the Link Box is missing, we can't fuse moves anymore. It'd be a waste of my time." He pulled up a few Water Shuriken and started doing a few tricks with them. "I worked on the special move I was perfecting before you got the Link Box. I can get them to bounce off each other three times now, instead of two."

Koga demonstrated by throwing a pair of shuriken. They collided three times mid-air before flying off in random directions.

"Okay, cool, what's the point?"

"You never know. We could use them to ambush an enemy that relies on sight, or to clip the wings of flying pokemon, so something like that." He shrugged. "I mean, I'm trying to get to at least twenty bounces - then I'm sure some uses will pop out. It'll take a while before I can get to that level of control, though."

I snorted. "Yeah, right. You did it to look good, huh."

He flashed a sheepish grin at me as we arrived at the Amphitheatre. "Look, that not the only reason I'm doing this exercise."

"But it's one of the big ones, right?" Koga ignored me and sat in our usual spot. I let out a small chuckle. "You're still that little brat at heart, you know. The little Froakie who looked up to his Lampent mentor. The one who tried to impress her with a," the chuckle grew into wheezing laughter, "a Bubble!"

Koga's cheeks pinked.

"But you still try to impress me." I wrapped a metal arm around Koga. "Ah, you're a riot."

"You know guys," Myga had walked up to the both of us, rolling her eyes. She must have been listening in to the teasing "I love the reminiscing, but the Captain is about to speak. We shouldn't miss anything."

Sure enough, the Captain was bunching us off into six separate units. One of the 'star' teams the Captain vaunted yesterday morning will lead each unit. Captain Falcon himself heading the last units. We were in the sixth unit, headed by Team Cruel.

We had never worked before with Team Cruel, even if we were in the same graduating class. Granted, we had fought in a small tournament held by Mr. Pix... Did I warn Tim- not, Tom- about the tournament?

Either way, it didn't matter. I won the tournament with ease. It was a little unfair, considering I was half a century older than the kids. I had much more battle experience. They couldn't even leave a scratch on me after all.

The two teams made that year was Team Cruel and Team Zelda. We both had three members, rather than four. Mr. Pix tried to give the other kids a fighting chance and allowed them to fight me three-on-one. They still lost, of course, but it was a little more difficult. Mr. Pix gave me a free pass to the tournament, afterward.

Regardless, I had been alone for the majority of the course, not that it concerned me or anything. The stigma and age gap had done well to isolate me. Everyone familiar with me knows how wonderful I am.

It's tough being a Lampent without a Dusk Stone on hand. Most of my body was immortal, but my nervous system, spirit, and mind were still vulnerable to aging. If I was a Chandelure, I'd look my age, and be mature enough to match.

I brought myself out of my musings, having missed the rest of the assignments. The other Venturers were filing out of the Amphitheatre in droves and rivers.

As I went to follow them, Koga made a comment to me. "Aren't you glad, Alice? Team Ness is coming along with us, in the sixth unit."

My eyes widened, and a smile broke across my face. "Are you sure?" I whispered, excited. My indignation and sadness at Captain Falcon ignoring us washed away. "That's great!"

I scanned the Amphitheatre and found Ti- stop it, Alice. Don't mistake Tom for Tim, he's gone and he's not coming back.

I scanned the Amphitheatre and found Tom and the rest of Team Ness wading through the crowd of Venturers. With a little bit of force and a pinch of the old duck-and-weave, the three of us met the young rookies.

"Ti-Tom!" Ugh, again?! "Glad to see you decided to come along as well! Are you ready?" I may be a little over excited, but who cares? Tom was like my little brother, and I couldn't help but want to train him. His overwhelming sweetness sweetened the pot as well.

He adopted a shy smile and flushed. It always made me smile when I saw it. "Uh, yeah. We're ready. Don't worry about that."

Tom's teammate, Glacia piped in. "We spent yesterday preparing. We had enough supplies in storage to last us a couple of days."

Oh no...

I coughed. "Will it last longer than that?"

The Turtwig's, I forgot his name, eyes widened. "How... how much were we supposed to pack?"

"A few weeks worth," Myga stated, not pulling any punches. "Making and widening any cracks in the Ring is going to take a lot of time, you know." Myga sighed. "Looks like you guys under-packed, huh?"

Merla tilted her head. "I'm sorry, I'm a little confused. The Rings are circular mystery dungeons, correct? How do you make cracks in one? I couldn't find anything saying how the rescue teams actually broke the rings, only that they did."

"Excuse me?" There was a strident shout, and the crowd of Pokémon the two groups had been following stopped short. "If everyone would please direct their attention to the front?"

In the front of the crowd, Team Cruel stood. Rax the Volcarona stood at the front, surveying the crowd. Once his cold eyes crossed where Teams Zelda and Ness stood, he sneered. Flanking him were Perni the Florges and Dram the Dragalge. Perni had been the one to call to the crowd.

I was glad that she was the one Captain Falcon decided to stick with Rax and Dram. Those two had been vicious, driven, and dang near unstoppable by anyone other than myself. Judging from their colder and more controlled faces, she had an effect on the two.

Perni coughed. "Now, the Captain has assigned us Arc C of Ring 72. The trip will take one and a half weeks, so I hope you've packed enough. We do have Bandy cooking, but we have limited supplies. If need be, you will have to forage for your own food."

I knew she meant foraging and the like, but it would likely be theft instead.

"We also have several special guests joining the Breaking. From Base #1-03, six teams have come to join our Base. Our unit would like to welcome Team Galeem to our ranks for the Breaking. Please show them the utmost hospitality and grace."

I couldn't see this 'Team Galeem'. But judging from the strange and frightened glances, they were getting, I had to assume that one was a Ghost-type. It was the standard reaction I had seen crossing the street after all.

Perni continued to drabble about the Breaking, but I stopped paying attention. From what I could tell, everything important could wait for later.

I decided to whisper over to Merla. "Uh, Merla, you still want me to tell you how the Breaking will work?"

Merla nodded, even though her eyes still remained on Perni. She was multitasking - I would have to tell her twice, then.

"Well, we're going to use some properties of a Mystery Dungeon to our advantage. Mystery Dungeons can only handle so many Pokémon at a time. They're not meant to hold more than a few non-captives at once."

Merla held a light of recognition in her eyes. "We're going to flood it, huh. We're going to go into the Ring at the same time?"

I shook my head. "If only it were that simple. The Ring will only accept a few Pokémon, regardless. It won't let more than one or two dozen Pokémon into the Dungeon. It'll reject everyone else."

Merla broke her glance for the stage. "Then what's the point?"

"Once we force the Ring to rebuff enough Pokémon, it will start to buckle under the pressure. It won't be as strong as it would be if it was facing the Pokémon inside by itself.

Merla nodded. "So, we won't be there to do any actual Venturing? Why don't we grab as many civilians as possible and send them to help buckle the Ring?"

I sighed. "Because there is still a danger to buckling - the sickness."

Merla's eyebrows raised. "Sickness?"

"Imagine you had nausea, dizziness, and lethargy, along with a hundred other symptoms. Now you'll be able to describe a tenth of the experience."

Merla paled a little. "Doesn't sound pleasant."

I shook my head. "Trust me, it's not. I've never been on a Breaking before, but from what I've heard, you have to spend at least a month recovering."

"A month?" I jumped a little bit. Glacia, eyes widened in surprise, stared at me. "Are... are you sure?"

I nodded. "Yeah. Breaking isn't a pleasant experience for the bucklers - but it's even worse for those in the Ring itself. The Dungeon throws everything it has at it. Once the Venturers clear the Ring, it'll break and collapse. To stop this, the Ring's self-defense mechanism activates. Imagine Pokémon so powerful their steps caused earthquakes. That's when you have a hundred bucklers."

Merla and Glacia, though, didn't seem to care. They were trading nervous looks. It looks like Tom was right - even if he wasn't green, they sure were.

"... concluding, we will make camp at five-thirty tonight. Let's begin the march." She then began to walk through to the exit of the Amphitheatre.

Ten minutes later, the crowds of Venturers were wading through Jeden City. News of the Breaking had reached the citizenry, and as we marched they cheered. It would be heartening if they didn't turn their heads and sniff when they saw our particular group.

As we exited Jeden, I stretched. I was never very scared of danger. Oh, I was as cautious as the next girl over, but I was never much of a coward. The prospect of being sick for the next month was awful, but it was going to be an experience, or so I heard.

That would have been more than enough for me, but I would be able to train Ti- ugh, Tom! - Tom, as well, in the wilderness to boot. I'm a good training partner, but I've yet to actually see him fight anyone other than me, other than in the tournament.

If I could drag our teams along as well, all the better.

Once we reached the hills outside the city, the unit fanned out. Those that were near us moved away as fast as possible.

While I was busy with my own thoughts, Merla and Glacia explained the situation to the other members of Team Ness.

The Turtwig - ah, his name was Naetle - looked frightened, as I expected. Tom, though, looked as nervous and anxious as his three teammates. Hmph - looks like he still needs a bit of toughening up.

Even if they were rather cute, it was disheartening to see them so nervous and scared. I mean, I know they're rookies, but still.

Speaking of rookies, Myga informed me of some of the Teams that joined us. I would claim conspiracy if I believed in that sort of thing. Team Knight - the other rookie team, the one with the awful Pawniard - had joined us as well. If I remembered right, they were one of the first teams to sign up.

Bored, I decided to look for them. Fifteen minutes of searching later, I found them. Three characters walked in the crowd. A sinister Pawniard - Catal - led the small group. A brutish Venipede crawled alongside him as loyal as a Growlithe. The two of them looked rather nasty.

Then there was the Torchic, whose name was Ken. He hung back, letting the other two members lead. He looked miserable and sick - his feathers were molting, his beak discolored, and his eyes almost dead.

Then he turned his head in our direction and looked at us. Something strange entered his eyes, something I could only describe as hunger.

Then we locked eyes, and he stared at me, fear leaking out. After a few seconds, he broke eye contact.

Ugh, I hope he wasn't one of those Pokémon that has a crush on me. If they aren't scared and stupid, they're in love and stupid. I'm a boy magnet, they can't get enough of me. There was one Krokorok, Rokka, who thought we were 'destined to be' and that I was 'the sweetest girl he'd ever known'.

I set him straight soon enough - 'sweet', as if! He holds a grudge against me now.

Ugh, this was going to be a long trip...

* * *

Six or so hours later, we made camp for the night. I craved something right now, something exciting. I had resorted to playing games during the march - if not with myself, then with my other teammates and Team Ness. They were fun and all, but they wouldn't work for the weeks of travel coming up.

The unit made several campsites before it dispersed for the night. We decided to share our food with Team Ness. It was going to be a little tough, but with some careful rationing, we would make it through the entire breaking. The members of Team Ness thanked us for our generosity, so there's that.

During the meal, the members of Team Ness talked suspiciously with each other. I would chalk this up to nerves, but they had calmed down earlier today in regards to that. That and cryptic and arbitrary words like 'radar', 'Kavol' and 'Sky'.

I asked Koga to keep an eye on them and to figure out what they were talking about. Neither of us had any compunctions about the eavesdropping. Myga had gotten used to this, and after telling us to respect privacy in a half-hearted tone, left us alone. The trip must have been tiring on her - she would have protested much louder if we were back at the Base.

Koga hadn't been able to get close enough to the group without Merla noticing him and hissing at him. Koga backed off after that. We decided to leave them alone after that - well, at least for now.

Soon enough, it was time for Tom's nightly training. Our team members wished us luck as we escaped into the wilderness for the night.

Tom had regressed a little bit and was still fighting without his instincts. That disappeared soon enough, though. He seemed to beat the feral Pokemon without much trouble. I whistled - it would take a year or so for him to rival me, but that was no mean feat. While I haven't been a Venturer for very long, I have been fighting for decades.

I considered teaching Tom Memento but decided against it. Knowing Tom, he would use it whenever his teammates were in danger. Plus, it was a risky move and I never bothered using it anyway.

Instead, we started work on Inferno, the most powerful Fire-type move I knew. I wasn't quite strong enough for Overheat yet, and I wouldn't be until I evolved. I can't wait until I get a Dusk Stone - I'll be able to move on in life, heck, I'll become more mature as well. At least, that's my hypothesis, anyway.

We trained by using Flame Burst over and over again. By making larger Flame Bursts, Tom was going to develop the amount of power needed for Inferno. This was going to be hard for him - Inferno is infamous for its difficulty. I'm pretty sure he'll evolve into a Lampent himself before he'll have enough raw power to get the move going.

Well, that's what I thought at first. Over the course of the night, Tom's Flame Burst grew in size. Sure enough, the Flame Burst was one and a half times bigger than it was before. Tom's growth never ceases to surprise me.

As we trained that night, I noticed that someone was near. They never showed themselves, but they made little effort to hide - that, or they were bad at it. It wasn't my concern, either way.

* * *

Over the next week or so, we fell into a pattern. Every day, we would march across the plains, marshes, and mountains of Naixe. I would talk to and hang out with the rest of my team and Team Ness. After hours of walking, we would make camp for the night. Through some smart rationing, my team and Team Ness managed to ration out our food. Our supplies were dwindling, but at roughly the same rates as the rest of the camps'. So, we were fine, even if we had it a little easier considering Tom and I needed next to no food.

Speaking of food, it was during this week that we figured out how starved Tom was.

It went a little something like this:

Tom was working on his increasing the size of his Flame Burst. A little bored, I decided to engage in some casual conversation. "Say, Tom, how often do you absorb life energy? I haven't seen you absorb any."

Tom, for some reason, paled. "W-what are you talking about? I don't absorb life energy."

I slapped my face, then proceeded to slap Tom many times. "You idiot! Don't you know anything about our biology?"

Tom rubbed his head. "I... I'm not following."

I sighed, then proceeded to question Tom. "Tom. When was the last time you drained life energy - when was the last time you lit the purple flame, not the red flame?" The color of our evolutionary family's flames depended on its use. Our red flames were for normal flames, and bluish-purple when we were draining lives.

"Three... three months ago? It was when I went into my first Mystery Dungeon. I haven't done it since - I've never needed to."

I gaped a little bit.

"Tom... we are going to feed you. Tonight."

Tom looked worried. "What about conserving rations?" Then I began to drag him out of the clearing we working in, and he started to panic. "What's going on?!"

I dragged Tom away from the clearing and into the overgrowth.

"Ti- Tom! I shouted to him as he began to struggle in my grasp. "I am going to teach you how to feed!"

"No!" Tom was wrestling with me as hard as possible. "Pokémon hate it! I don't want to drain their life!"

I sighed - why is Tom like this?

We neared a napping Zigzagoon. A bit tacky and bland, but it would work for now. "Sorry about this, Tom." I put an Imprison on him. He fired out a wave of Ghost energy to disperse it.

Luckily, that's what I wanted.

Another little-known fact - a fact so little known I'm the only one who knows about it. The flame of our evolutionary line will change from red to life-draining when they use Ghost aura. The change is involuntary.

Before the Link Box, there was no way to do this, as it was impossible to use both Ghost aura and flames at the same time. With some move fusion, though, I managed.

As Tom fired the Ghost wave, I lit his wick with a tiny Flame Burst. The purple flame roared to life, casting a pearly purple glow on the surroundings. The sleeping Zigzagoon's breathing soon became haggard.

Tom's face grew frightened. "Wh... what did you do to me?!" He noticed the light. "Oh no. Oh no no no no no no no..." His face screwed in concentration, which fell away to panic. "NO NO NO! I can't turn it off!" The flame grew to massive proportions and the Zigzagoon's fur paled.

I grabbed Tom. "Tom, calm do-" Tom hit me with a powerful wave of Ghost energy. Tom had blasted me back with a blast of energy.

"Alice, turn it off. TURN IT OFF!" Tom was crying, wet tears sliding down his face. "WHY WON'T THE LIGHT TURN OFF!"

Then he grew silent. I looked at his face - he was horrified. I followed his gaze to the corpse of the Zigzagoon on the ground.

I let him go as the flame burned on.

He edged his way to the Zigzagoon corpse. I decided to touch it too. It was warm.

"It... it's dead." Tom's voice had become completely broken. "I... what did I..."

"Tom, listen to me." I stepped in close to him and rest my hand on his waxy body. "It's oka-"

"NO! IT... AGH!" He slapped my hand away. He looked cornered and terrified, like a baby.

"Tom, listen to me-"

"N-NO! ST-STAY AWAY FROM ME!" I felt a heartbreak I hadn't for decades. Tim... no, he's dead, Tom's not him.

But they had the same quiver in their voice when something had frightened them.

"Tim..."

But Tom had already run off into the wilderness. I cursed before running off after him, with our stalker continuing the pursuit as well.

It soon devolved into a chase. Tom's flame burned bright as he ran away from me as fast as possible. I navigated the dense foliage, trying to catch him.

Soon, though, we ended up by a cave. I walked inside after Tom ran in. I cursed Tom again - why here, of all places. Caves were the worst place our line could be in - Water, Rock, Ground, and Dark Pokemon were everywhere. I lit my own Light and made my way into the cave as well.

I managed to corner Tom in the cave. I found him crying in a small ball, having nestled himself in a small niche in the wall.

"Tom..." Regardless of the long chase, I felt nothing but sadness. "Does it scare you that much?"

Tom began to blubber. "I don't like hurting people."

I was skeptical. "But we spar every night."

Tom shook his head. "Th-that's differ..." He sniffed. "That's different. I don't hurt you, not that much. You always come back, you're never hurt for too long."

I was a little surprised. "What about before graduation? In Mystery Dungeons?"

"I never hurt them... n-not for long, anyway. They would always fall unconscious before then. And with Ms. Kiss... I knew that nothing bad would ever happen." Tom's voice wavered. "A-and the Pokémon in Mystery Dungeons... they're not real. I can tell that they're not like other Pokémon. They don't feel like we do. They're not alive. Hurting them isn't so bad."

Tom's voice began to break. "B-but that Zigzagoon... it... I didn't have to hurt it. It was just lying there and I... I..." Tears began to splash onto the ground. "I... I'm scared. I can't turn it off! I won't be able to go back!"

"What do you mean?"

"I... I'll suck out everyone's life. Everyone will die around me. Nobody w-wants to die, but I'll kill them all. I can't turn it off!"

Tom began to bawl. It struck me how different he was acting than usual.

We stayed like that for a while. Tom wouldn't stop crying, the fluid leaking out. Around us, various Zubats and Geodudes began to fall to the ground, dying in the light. I was immune, though.

I made my way over to Tom and hugged him.

He eased his way into my grasp, and then I realized how much he cared.

He was afraid. Afraid of death, or mortality.

Not of his own - Tom was a ghost after all, and we were never alive; not in the conventional sense.

Tom was afraid that he was going to kill his friends. The proof decayed around us as he sobbed. There was no way he would be able to return to normality, not like this.

"Tom... can I ask you something?" I requested.

Tom nodded, his eyes dead.

"Tom, have you ever heard of the Ghost World?"

"W-What...?" Tom asked, his voice weak and dying.

"The Spirit Land. The World of the Dead. The Afterlife. Ring a bell?"

Tom nodded. "Y-yeah."

"I've been there." Tom's eyes widened.

A Dusknoir - which specialize in that form of transport - had taken me there. Those were the days when I was younger and eager to know more about the world.

"Tom, we are ghosts. We can travel between the land of the living and the land of the dead. When we are alive, we can go to Death. This is a part of you, no matter what you might expect."

"But... I won't be able to see them again. I'm a... a monster. When I get near them, they'll... they'll die."

I sighed. "Tom, look at your flame."

Tom brought his gaze upward. "It's... it's smaller." He concentrated for a second. The Light wavered, but wouldn't go out.

Tom teared up a little bit. "I... it won't go out..."

Instead of saying anything, I hugged him tighter. "Tom?"

He nodded. "Y... yes."

"Tom, how much do you care for your friends?"

"M... more than I can say." He sniffed. "I feel... I can't help but feel awful."

"That's your heart, Tom. It's the part of you that cries for help, that wants to help others. No matter what, Tom, you won't have the heart of a monster."

Tom was silent, but I could still feel tears dripping. It reminded me... of him.

On a strange leap of intuition, I decided to sing.

"Within every rise, comes a fall, and a fountain of tears.

Within every rise, you gain the strength to conquer your fears.

Within every rise, comes a day when you'll find a new friend.

Then you will know that it's not the end."

It was a simple lullaby that Mom had taught to me when we were young. She then dumped the job of rocking the twins to sleep. I had despised it until Tim had disappeared, and when Tam left I could only sing it to myself.

But as I repeated it, the flame grew strong, yet smaller. It shrunk and shrunk with every repetition of the chorus until it was nothing but a wisp of smoke.

I didn't let go, though. Tom didn't want to let go, either.

I let the song die down.

"... Why?" His voice had gained a bit of strength. "Why did you light it?"

"Your body was starving, Tom. Look at the ground." Tom obeyed and saw a ring of dust and sand around him.

"Is this... from the tournament?"

I nodded. "If you had been gaining life energy from others as your body wants you two, you would have already removed the dust. Instead, it hung around in your system until you didn't notice it anymore."

"... my body, it... feels good."

"As I said, your body was starving - except it was more like drowning. That little spark was the breath of air your body needed to remember it could absorb life. It didn't stop until you had eaten all that you needed."

"... will this happen again?"

I nodded. "Your body won't forget, Tom. The hunger will become unbearable, and your life will become miserable. Your body will deteriorate."

Tom shook his head. "Nothing is unbearable. Nothing is comparable to not being able to be with my friends."

"Well, you can have both, you know."

Tom's cute face fell into a scowl. "Yeah. All I have to do is kill the wildlife, right?"

I shook my head. "It takes time for absorption to kill. All you have to do is wait until the effects of the absorption become visible before going to someone else. They'll regenerate the life energy from their own food, so, in a practical sense, it's harmless."

Tom looked up. "Are you sure?" Hope laced his voice.

I nodded. "Try turning your flame on and off again. Since you're not starving, it shouldn't be as hard."

Tom nodded. His Light sprang to life again, before putting itself out.

"There you go. I'll teach you how to manage your eating. Once or twice a day should be fine. You'll have to explain it to your team, but if they're your friends, they won't mind."

Tom nodded, his face haggard.

"Anyway, we should get out of here. The sun will be rising soon."

There was a skitter, and Tom started. "Uh... what was that?"

"Your hearing is better now that you've actually gained some energy. Someone's been spying on our training for the past week. I was waiting for you to notice."

"Oh. Tom stretched. "I... I'm feeling a lot better now."

Going back through the cave, we saw a definitive lack of corpses. This seemed to encourage Tom, and we entered the moonlight.

Tom looked much healthier. His old pale wax was now ivory, and its consistency was much gloppier. His wick, which had been drooping, now stuck straight up. I'm a little ashamed I didn't catch this much earlier.

As the sun was rising, we walked straight to the campsite so we could join the march.

To say we surprised our teams was an understatement.

"Tom! What are you..." Glacia mouth was gaping. "What happened?"

Tom looked away, bashful. "I... I... remember when we were first captured by Henka?"

Henka?

Glacia tilted her head. "Yeah?"

"Remember your insults to Henka - 'Drown in a Muk'?"

"Oh, that's a good one," I said out loud. I startled both of them as if they forgot I was there. Either way, I would have to use that one later.

Glacia nodded. "A little." Then she blushed a little bit. "Oh... uh, sorry for that last insult by the way. I didn't watch my words back then."

Tom shook his head. "Not a problem. Remember how he grabbed my wick with a Fire Punch?"

"Yeah, I..." She turned to stare at me. "What did you do to him?"

I backed away. "Nothing bad, I assure you."

Tom nodded. "I haven't lit that flame since Castle Rock. Alice lit the flame for me last night and, well, we discovered some things."

Glacia narrowed her eyes. "What things?"

Tom became nervous. "I... may have been starving myself. Of life energy."

"What do you mean? You've been..." Glacia's eyes widened. "Do you need to drain energy?"

I nodded. "It's more important to us than food is to you, Glacia. I made sure he got his fill last night, and well, look at him now."

Glacia surveyed him. "Wow... now that I'm trying to remember, you looked a lot different than the picture of Litwicks in my book. Your wax was a lot less elastic - for Arceus' sake, you dropped wax all over the place when we first met. I haven't seen a drop since then." Glacia flushed. "I... sorry I didn't notice."

I waved my hand before Tom could respond. "Look, Glacia, I'm pretty sure the blame lies on me. I actually could recognize the symptoms, but I completely overlooked them. Either way, you guys will have to make sure Tom gets his fill of life energy. It won't kill, but if you're scared that it'll kill, Tom can go snack in the wilderness. Once he gets some control, you'll have nothing to fear. Team Zelda provides me my life energy, after all."

Glacia nodded. "I'll do some research once we get back to Jeden." Despite this, I couldn't help but hear duplicity in the statement.

* * *

A few nights later began what would soon change my life forever.

* * *

It was inevitable we would capture our stalker. I'm surprised we didn't find him sooner. I mean, we weren't particularly looking for him, but I thought he would have messed up before then.

It was by chance that he showed himself.

It was in the middle of a spar between me and Tom. Under the setting sun, we danced an incredible battle. Tom had gotten much faster after he ate his fill, and his moves had grown in power. I found myself actually having to put some legitimate effort in the battle to dominate him as I had before.

He would be able to use Inferno after the Breaking. A month of training beyond that and he'd be able to match me blow for blow. My larger worry at this point is Tom's eclipsing of his team's strength. I mean, I managed, but I've had decades of developing and controlling my power.

That, and a strange lack of evolution. Tom has yet to make any signs of evolution, even though he's strong enough to evolve by now. I can't help but wonder if he's swallowed an Everstone or something.

But I'm digressing. I was strafing Tom with Night Shades while Tom sent volley after volley of Flame Bursts my way. One of the Flame Bursts I had dodged hit a tree, incinerating it.

Our mysterious stalker had been hiding behind that particular tree. As it burned to the ground within seconds, Tom and I received a full glance of the perpetrator.

"Ken?" Our mysterious stalker was nothing but the strange Torchic from Team Knight.

"I..." turning around, Ken fled. Or at least he tried to. I caught up to him and wrapped a metallic arm around his waist. He shot some meager Embers at me, which bounced off.

Once he stopped struggling, I laid him down. The three of us sat in the clearing.

"So, brat," I dropped my pleasant attitude. Full sixty-year-old, go! "I've noticed that you've been watching us train for the last week and a half. Mind telling me what's going on?"

"I... I'm sorry." Ken bowed. "I shouldn't have intruded upon your training." Ignoring the formality, I studied him. I laid a subtle Imprison on him so he wouldn't be able to walk out.

Sure enough, Ken made motions to get away but found himself frozen.

"Could you please let me out?" He pleaded. I scoffed.

Then Tom regarded him. "Ken, what happened to you? You look awful." Tom sounded rather concerned.

Ken's eyes flashed. "I..." Then he began to cry. "Everything's gone wrong! And it… it's your fault!"

Tom recoiled, looking unsure of himself. I tried to interrupt. "What do you mea-"

Ken ignored me. "You're the reason why we got caught! Now look at us - Ivan's dead, Jenga's going insane, and I'm dying!"

We stared at Ken. "Wh...what?"

Tears flowed from Ken's eyes as he spoke. "Are - are you happy now?! Everything was fi-" He sobbed. "Fine until you came along! We had some Nip, and Jenga was healthy! Now everything's awful!"

I felt out of the loop. All I could recall was that the members of Team Knight used to have a stash of Nip, straight from Tom's mouth.

"Okay, start from the beginning," I interrupted, trying to get some information out of him. "What happened to you guys after you got caught."

As Ken spoke, he calmed down slightly. "Once they confiscated our stash, we had no more Nip, at least not for a while. Catal got us another stash after a week or so."

Ken looked away as if trying to remember something. "But it... it's strange. The Nip he gave us before was completely different than the Nip we have how. Our old Nip was the kind your average Pokémon uses. It gave off some great smoke when it's on fire or when you throw poison on it. The Nip we've used ever since he came," he pointed at Tom. "smelled weird right from the get-go, and its smoke is plain awful."

Ken shook his head. "I don't know where Catal got that awful Nip from. But its destroyed my life. By breathing the smoke, I get sick. Remember when I had to bow out of the tournament? That was why. It's been killing me, and when I went to Ms. Kiss for it, she had nothing. It's been weakening me enough to prevent me from evolving." He coughed, and few more feathers molted off. My eyes widened - what on Earth was happening?

Tom's eyes widened with concern. "Why don't you leave? Escape?"

Ken stared at Tom. "And - and then what? Where would I go? My dad is as insane as everyone else in this Arceus cursed place. He listens to Catal m-more than me, and tells me that I should be more like him! And I have nowhere outside of the Base - I've lived there my entire life!"

Both Tom and I were silent.

"And do you know what that weird Nip did to Jenga? Every time I meet him he's a few shades closer to insane! That Nip has turned him c-c-cuckoo - he doesn't listen to anyone but Catal now!" Ken trembled. "As far as I can tell, Catal has replaced Merla with him!" Ken was crying now, large splotches appearing on the ground. "He... He was my friend! A-and when you took Merla, Catal somehow replaced her with Jenga! He's a slave now!"

Ken's voice broke. "He... he was my friend. And now he's... Catal's taken him away."

My voice was calm when I spoke. "You had one more teammate - Ivan, was it? You said she was dead - what happened to her?"

Ken whispered. "She hated it all from the beginning. The weird Nip, my sickness, Jenga's slavery... she hated it all. She would shout herself hoarse every night at the two of them. She would cry in her sleep. She complained to Captain Falcon, who stopped her at every turn."

Then Ken took a big gulp. "Then she finally crossed Catal."

The clearing was deadly silent. How much damage can one kid do - in all honesty, Catal was a devil.

"C-can I talk to him," Tom asked, surprising me slightly. I snorted and left Tom to his conversation.

Ken's eyes were empty as Tom surveyed Ken. It went on like that for a little bit of time before Tom asked a question. "Why?"

"Why what?" Ken mumbled.

"Why do you think I had anything to do with this?"

"Because you started everything. Our old Nip was fine, but you started the chain of events that led to our misery!" Despite his words, Ken looked unsure of himself - as if someone else told him those words.

Tom nodded. "Alright. I did start that chain of events, although it was accidental. But I've left you alone afterward. All I did was smell some weird smoke Jenga offered me."

Ken sniffed. "O-oh yeah, then whose fault is it?"

"Catal's, the Captain's, and your fault," Tom responded. Ken recoiled from his statement, even though it was obvious. "I mean, to tell you the truth, I'm not the one who decided that you guys should use Nip. I'm definitely not the one who gave you that awful poison Nip. And I didn't kill Ivan."

"Catal did all those things. He's the one that got you into trouble, by giving you the Nip in the first place. He's the one that has the tainted Nip you're using now. He's the one who killed Ivan." Tom stared in the direction of the campsite. "Be upset with him - I only tried to do what was right. Catal's the murderer who's been giving you poison." Tom stressed the obvious.

Ken gulped, his eyes growing fearful. "And my dad? And me?"

"Captain Falcon has nothing to stop Catal - in fact, as far as I can tell, he's helping Catal." He looked at me. "Alice, has there been any announcement of Ivan's death?"

I shook my head. "No, there hasn't."

Tom turned to face Ken. "Well, it looks like there's a cover-up. You said that Captain Falcon loves Catal more than you, his own son, right? As far as I can tell, he approves of what Catal is doing."

Ken gaped for a few seconds, then, his face sorrowful, he nodded. I let the Napalm dissipate - it looks like we won't need it after all. Ken seems to be cluing into how it is not Tom's fault that this mess occurred.

"And you - what have you done? Look at yourself - you're dying right now. What have you done to solve this problem on your own?"

"I... I went to my dad..."

Tom snorted.

"I asked Ms. Kiss for help."

I scoffed myself. "She won't be able to do anything - she's a medic, and holds no true authority. I doubt she'd be willing to cross Captain Falcon."

Ken was silent. "... nothing... you..." dry tears formed. "You're right... I... that's why I came here. When you came to Captain Falcon to argue against Team Ness going on the Breaking, you... you became my hero. You actually stood up to Dad - no one has ever done that before."

All I did was get into a shouting match with the guy. Has no one ever shouted at him before? If so, I have to be somewhat proud of myself.

"I... I wanted your help. I wanted you to solve the problem for me. To-"

"I'm going to stop you right there." Both Tom and Ken swiveled their heads to look at me. I've already made my decision - now it was up to Ken. "This isn't my fight."

"Wh-what?" Ken stammered. "What are you talking about?"

"Look, Ken," I leaned on a tree. "What your 'friend' and father have done is despicable. Don't get me wrong, I know that." I sighed. "Thing is, this isn't my fight. If you want me to fight your battles for you, you're dead wrong."

Tom stepped forward. "But Alice-"

"Nope, not going to solve your problem for you." I saw the hope leave Ken's eyes. "But I'm not going to leave you to your death - that's not my style. Not at least, without something in return."

Ken coughed. "What do you want me to do? I'll do anything." Ken begged.

"I want you to denounce Catal and Jenga - to shout their crimes to the entirety of the unit."

Ken's eyes widened. "B-but they'll kill me-"

"And once you've done that, I want you to break your friendships with them."

Their eyes widened. "W-what? I ca-"

"I'm not giving you orders, Ken. I'm giving you conditions." I told him, blithe. "Let me be clear. I'm not going to burden myself with this problem, Ken, nor am I your savior. Tom was right - through your inaction, you have helped ruin your own life. If you want my help in any capacity, you'll have to prove yourself."

"But... that's... that's not fair... they're my... Jenga's my friend!"

I pulled an exasperated eye to him. "If you want to let go of the past, you'll have to cut those toxic ties. Show me your strength of character, Ken."

With that, I dissipated the Imprison. Ken ran from the clearing, his sobs loud.

"Alice, you're being too-"

"Tom, if you're going to say I was too hard on him, I will quintuple your training for the next month." That shut him up.

"Look, Tom. Against my better judgment, I have faith in the boy." It was small and dying, but it existed. "Let's see what will happen when we get to the campsite."

So with that, we followed behind Ken and headed for the campsite as fast as possible. Luckily, the campsites were in earshot of each other. If there was any large commotion, the unit could come to check it out.

If everything went as planned, this wouldn't backfire.

Soon, Tom and I arrived at the campsite, and with a quick scan of the area, found Team Knight at one of the campsites.

Catal was laughing at a joke he had made, while Jenga was nodding along - a true sycophant. Ken, looked like he was having a panic attack. He seemed to try to laugh, but it sounded shrill and hollow.

"Alice," Tom sounded concerned. "What will we do? Ken's not doing anything."

I smiled at him. "We're going to force his hand, Tom. Force him to choose."

Tom nodded. He could see that Ken needed a bit of prodding as well.

We headed over to where Team Knight was staying. As we neared, Tom grew nervous. "W-what if he sides with Catal and Jenga?"

"Then we forget this ever happened, Tom. It'll remain a tragedy." Tom gaped, but I forged onward.

"Hello!" I sent a greeting to Team Knight.

"Hello," Catal drawled back. "You... I'm sorry, do I know you?" The derision in his voice was getting on my nerves. I grinned - finally, a chance to let loose without worrying my conscious.

"Oh, no. You see, I've heard a tip from a rather confidential source. I'm pretty sure there were four members of you team, but there are only three right now."

Catal's eyes narrowed. "It's none of your business. Ivan's sick right now and was unable to come to the Breaking. A shame."

"May I ask what the name of this sickness is, by any chance?"

"Tectonic fibrillation."

I couldn't help but snicker. "You couldn't come up with a better fake disease than that?"

Catal stood up. "I must apologize, but you have overstayed your welcome. Jenga, could you please remove them, if possible?" Jenga stood up. His bulbous eyes flooded with purple blood vessels.

"Leave," Jenga said. "Or you will die."

"Wonderful," I drawled. "Oh, what a wonderful insult. Tell me, do you two care that you killed someone?"

Catal stood up as well. "You know, I've decided you won't be able to go to the Breaking. Some sort of accident, they'll say."

The four of us geared up for battle, but before anyone launched a single attack, there was a large shout! "No! S-Stop!"

Ken stood up, his eyes wide with panic. "Y-you two have to stop!" To my enjoyment, that wasn't directed at Tom and me, but to Catal and Jenga.

"Oh, shut up, would you, you invalid moron."

That tore it for Ken. With a large squawk, sob, and bawl, he fell onto the surprised Catal and started kicking him with all his might, screaming all the while. They brawled for a couple of seconds before Jenga pulled Ken off and held him in place. Ken's tear tracks grew more defined as rivers flowed down his cheeks

Catal brushed himself off. "Alright, you've exhausted my patience, you useless weakling."

Then Ken began to shout.

"EVERYONE!" Ken's shrill scream tore through the peaceful night's air. Catal took a step back. "CATAL IS A MURDERER! REMEMBER IVAN! REMEMBER IVAN!"

Jenga squeezed Ken tighter, to shut him up, but Ken continued. "WE ARE MONSTERS! WE'VE BEEN BREATHING NIP!"

To help him out, I bonked Jenga on the head. The surprise forced him to let go of Ken, who bounced out of the way.

"YOU'VE DONE NOTHING BUT HURT AND TAKE! I WON'T STAND FOR THIS ANYMORE!"

Courage formed in Ken's eyes as he spoke. "Catal, I curse you. Your days are numbered - I'll take you down, no matter what!"

Catal scowled and he glanced at the crowd around that had gathered to watch the spectacle. Then he smirked. "Well, Ken. In for a penny, in for a pound." With a jump, he started slashing at Ken, who was too weak to dodge.

At least, he would have slashed, if it hadn't been for a well-timed Energy Ball and Shadow Ball from the crowd.

Glacia smirked. "It's about time I've gotten my revenge, Catal. I haven't forgotten that first beating."

Tom's Turtwig teammate - Naetle, I finally remembered - had wisps of green energy flowing from his mouth. "You know, Catal, I knew you were awful, but I didn't think you were that bad." Naetle sighed. "We have unfinished business too, you know."

Then the three of them began their battle - Glacia and Naetle against Catal. The crowd froze, not entirely sure what to do or who to support.

Ken picked himself up from the ground and glanced at Jenga. "Jenga...why?" he asked.

There was no compassion in Jenga's eyes. "Go die."

I waited for Ken to break off his friendship with Jenga. Instead, Ken hopped over to Jenga and hugged Jenga with all his might. Jenga thanked him by whipping him with Poison Tails. Over and over again, Jenga flogged him with toxins.

Then there was a brilliant flash of light, and Jenga began to glow. Within a few seconds, a Whirlipede appeared.

Jenga threw Ken backward. With a weary sigh, he picked himself up. "Jenga, I'm... I'm sorry. Sorry for letting Catal in, for using the Nip... for everything. I... I know what your dad did to you was..."

Ken couldn't finish, as Jenga fired a barrage of Poison Stings at him. Before they could reach Ken, though, a few Flame Bursts intercepted them.

Thing was, neither Tom nor I made them.

From the crowd waded...

"Tam?!"

The Chandelure grinned at me. "Hey, sis. How have you been the past forty-five years?"

"G-great... What are you doing here?!" He was the last person I expected to see in this place.

"I'm a member of Team Galeem, sis. I've become a Venturer, like you." He snickered. "Nice to see you haven't lost that fiery temper."

"You're Pyre!" Tom exclaimed.

I turned to him in surprise. "How do you know Tam's nickname?"

"Tam?" Tom turned to me. "I thought your real name was Pyrrhus?"

Tam turned a tired eye to Tom. "Look, Tom, which is the cooler name - Tam or Pyrrhus?" Tom opened his mouth to respond, but Tam shushed him. "Can you wait for a few seconds - I have to handle this."

Tam waded into the battle between Glacia, Naetle, and Catal, which had fallen into a stalemate. With a deft scoop, he grabbed the three of them and pulled them apart.

"Now, look. You three will have proper justice dealt upon you later. No more 'revenge fights' alright?"

The three of them stopped struggling, although they glared daggers at each other. Tam dropped them.

"If I hear you two have been fighting like this, I'll have to talk to Captain Falcon himself, got it?"

The three of them nodded, with Glacia doing so with a blush on her face. Naetle looked much more reluctant than she did. But I could see that Catal hid a smirk and a scowl. The Pawniard had nothing to fear, after all - not from Captain Falcon.

Tam pointed to Ken. "Anyway, he needs medical attention. Can you kids get him some medical treatment." The three kids shakily nodded and took Ken to the direction of the clearing. I'd meet up with them later. Tam, Catal, and I were the only ones left encircled by the crowd.

"What's going on here?!" There was a roar from the crowd and the crowd parted slightly to show Rax the Volcarona. Slaughter shone in Rax's eyes. "I've been trying to go to bed, and people have been screaming murder! Who is the person responsible for all this madness?" He pinpointed his eyes at Tam. "What is this all about, Ghost?!"

Tam was calm as he spoke. "This Pawniard has been accused of killing his own teammate, and several members of Team Ness brawled with him."

The phrase, "Team Ness" seemed to set him off. "Argh! I knew I should have rejected Captain's Falcon's orders! Your four are nothing but trouble."

My mouth parted in shock. A Venturer has been accused of murder, and that was what he focused on? Rax continued to curse Team Ness as Tam stoically withstood the tirade.

Then other pokemon in the crowd began to shout - Catal, the slime, had been trying to sneak away in the tantrum, a grin stuck on his face. "Hey, what gives? We can't let that Pawniard get away!" A Lycanroc shouted, his face filled with righteous anger. "That brat killed my sister! I haven't seen Ivan in weeks, even though I've been looking all over for her!" He galloped through the crowd, and cornered Catal.

As the Lycanroc ran, the other Pokemon grew invigorated. "That's right! We can't let this murder get away." For once, mob mentality was working in my favor. The crowd grew into a ravenous lynch mob. "Where is the murderer?!"

"Excuse me?" Tam called out. The shouting of Rax and the din of the crowd muted him though.

"EXCUSE ME?!" Tam shouted again, louder.

Rax and the crowd, though, refused to quiet. "Ugh... well, time to give them a scare." I barely heard him say.

Then he flashed Inverted.

Upon seeing the changed colors, the crowd proceeded to shut up, before screaming and fled.

Rax grew pale. "You… you… get away from me, you monster!" He frantically flapped his wings into a Whirlwind. Tents slowly uprooted themselves as a powerful wind buffeted us.

Tam sneered, and an old anger leaked through. "Huh, you seem to like wind, you airbag." He said coldly over the roar of the gale.

Rax raged. "The wind will blow you away, demon!"

Tam's flames turned a deeper shade of orange. "Is that right? Let's see."

Then Tam fired an Shadow Ball, except it was more like a cannonball. It cut straight through the Whirlwind, landing directly at the prone Rax.

With a screech, the Whirlwind cut off. Large purple bolts of energy lanced across Rax's body.

Tam spoke to Rax with no compassion. "Sorry, but I'm tired of this charade. If you want another Shadow Ball, you can stick around. Otherwise, leave." Rax took his chance and ran for the hills, but gave Tam one last hateful look.

"I won't forget this." Rax whispered audibly. "Captain Falcon will make sure you pay."

Tam snorted. "I'm sure he will." With a sigh, Tam returned to normal. "Ugh… that was exhausting."

I sighed, familiar with Tam's ability. "I thought you had grown out of doing that," I commented. Tam and Tim (not Tom) had the ability to turn themselves into Inverted colors. It gave Mom and Dad quite a scare at first when a strange mist entered their eggs. But when they hatched, they looked completely normal.

Later in life, we found out that the Mist could make them look Inverted, ominous aura and all. Their powers, though, didn't change, and they could return to normal at any time.

Their personalities shifted with the changes as well. In their normal blue forms, they were polite and kind. But as an Inverted, they were cold. They were still kind, of course, but the kindness held no warmth. They were also more open to breaking the law.

Let's say that as Inverted, the two of them were some of the worst pranksters the town ever had to endure. I couldn't even begin to compete.

He snorted "Scary transformation, huh? Don't worry, sis, I'm not evil - well, that's up for debate." He snickered. "I'll take care of the Venipede for now." He went to handle the blindly rampaging Jenga, who had been well ignored up until now. As we walked away, Catal's glare burned into my back.

* * *

Back in the clearing, the sun had almost completely set. Naetle was feeding Ken some Pecha and Oran Berries. Tom sat next to Glacia, as Ken got up.

"Ugh... so, that happened." He faced me. "Sorry. I couldn't break my friendship with Jenga. He's... we've been together for years. I can't curse him - I'm sorry."

I waved my hand. "Don't worry about it - you more than made up for it. You've proven you'd be willing to die to save him - that's good enough in my books. You'll be with Team Zelda for now. I'll talk to my friends, make sure that they agree."

As I said that, Naetle turned to Tom. "Is this a Litwick thing - this adoptive hospitality?" Tom shrugged.

Glacia sniggered. "I wouldn't doubt it."

Ignoring the three of them, I spoke to Ken. "We'll be gathering some berries for you every night - you won't have a source of food from Team Knight anymore." Ken nodded, shaking.

"I... I... it's awful." Ken confessed. "Everything feels awful."

"In the physical sense or emotional sense?"

"Both. I mean, I know it was the right thing to do. But... poor Jenga."Ken's eyes were distant. "I'll find some way to return him. Return him to what he was before Catal got his hands on him."

I nodded. "Take the rest of the night off, try to gain some strength. We'll start training tomorrow. We're nearing the Ring, but we'll be able to get some in before the Breaking."

Ken nodded. "Thank you. I-"

BOOM!

All four of us jumped. Then a pillar of light appeared in the sky, a kilometer or so away. It illuminated the treetops, bathing us in an unnatural light.

None of could say anything. Then the pillar of light began to shrink.

Tom, Naetle, and Glacia ran toward the pillar.

"What are you three doing?" I shouted after them, startled.

Ken got up. "We... we should follow them." He wheezed.

I picked Ken up and ran after the three members of Team Ness.

After five minutes of running, the five of us appeared at the pillar of light.

The three of them shook their heads. "What... what are we doing here?" Glacia asked, confused. "Some...someone was calling for us?"

I huffed and dropped Ken. "Wouldn't I like to know?!"

The pillar of light, which had been shrinking before, began to dissipate. A remnant of it remained, though, in what looked like a... fairy.

Naetle seemed to be choking. "Wh... what?"

The pink fairy woke up. "Naetle?"

Glacia turned to Naetle. "Who... who is this?"

"Celebi?"


	14. 14 - A Traitorous Trap

(Glacia)

"C-Celebi?" My mouth was dry. "You... you're Celebi?"

The disoriented Celebi nodded. "Uh... yes, I'm Celebi." She turned to Naetle. "Naetle? I haven't seen you in ages - why are you here again?" She asked.

Naetle opened his mouth to speak but Alice, who was holding onto an ill Ken, interrupted him. "Excuse me, what's going on?" Alice looked somewhat ticked off and cut right to the chase. "Who are you, exactly? And why did you appear in a pillar of light?"

Celebi tilted her head. "Pillar of light? What do you mean? I just went and took a nap, found myself in Limbo, and..." Celebi's voice trailed off, and she took a deep look at her surroundings. Then she gasped. "Wh-where am I?" Then her eyes dilated. "Wh-when am I?"

Alice looked confused. "What do you mean, 'when'?"

Naetle began to sweat. "Uh... could you please leave, Alice? Shouldn't you take care of Ken?"

Alice narrowed her eyes. "No chance, Naetle." She put down a nauseous Ken. "Ken will be fine. I'm more concerned about the... Celebi?" Alice shook her head. "I've heard that name before..."

Celebi broke out a smile. "Are you sure?" Celebi floated up to Alice. "I didn't know I had fans!" She took hold of one of Alice's posts. "Nice to meet you... Alice?"

Alice nodded. "Yes... I remember the name 'Celebi' from somewhere, but I can't exactly put it down."

For someone who looked lost and disoriented, Celebi was also rather cheerful. "Naetle will help you explain." She turned to Naetle. "So, Naetle, where and when are we?"

Alice raised a brow. "Okay, what do you mean by 'when'?"

"Sometimes I travel through time in my sleep, it's not much of an issue." Celebi confirmed what I had thought.

"Travel through... "Alice's eyes widened in shock. "You-you're from that fairy tale!"

Celebi's eyes sparkled. "Fairy tale? I have a fairy tale now?" Then she looked at Naetle. "But Naetle, aren't you from the past?" She gasped. "Don't tell me you time-traveled again!"

Naetle blushed. "Uh... yeah. Thousands of years into the future. We're a couple millennia away from the past, Celebi."

She tilted her head. "But how? As far as I can know, Dialga and I are the only ones that are able to make Dimensional Holes."

"Hold on, hold on!" Alice butted in again. As she began to speak, Tom brought a dozing Ken over to me, looking rather confused himself. "Are you that Celebi? The Lustrous Celebi? The one who traveled through countless generations to save time itself?"

Celebi blinked. "The Lustrous Celebi?" She looked over herself. "I am rather Shiny, yes. But I didn't time travel myself - I took Grovyle, Naetle, and Sky to the past. I can only manage short hops in time."

Alice grabbed her head. "This... this is too much. Wh..." She pinned her gaze on Naetle. "Naetle, she mentioned you. Give me some context, would you?"

Naetle sighed, then nodded. "Alright. Parts of that legend are wrong, and I'm a time traveler." Naetle deadpanned.

Alice gaped. "I... what?"

"I'm a time traveler - I was born four millennia in the past. I became a Venturer to find a way home."

Celebi chipped in a little. "He's not the only one. Those two are time travelers as well - I can tell." She pointed at me and Tom. We had been watching the conversation at work. I squirmed a little bit when Celebi directed her attention at us.

Alice gaped a little bit - then she shook her head. "This is a joke, isn't it? You can't be some figure from some legend - that's a little too unreasonable." She shook her head. "Tell me the truth - who are you, actually?"

Celebi frowned. "I'm Celebi - didn't I tell you that?"

Alice snorted. "And I'm Conkelldius. What are you, a Ditto? A Zoroark?" Alice grabbed Celebi a little bit and shook her up. My breath hitched.

Celebi said nothing as Alice grabbed her. Then the two of them disappeared in a flash of light.

I immediately stood up. "What happened?!"

Naetle turned to me, shock in his eyes. "They must have time traveled!"

Then there was another flash of light, and the two of them appeared again.

Alice sat down, dizzy. "Oh... that's an experience," she moaned. "Remind me never to time travel again."

Celebi giggled. "Your reaction to your teenage self was amusing - I didn't know two people could get into a shouting match that fast."

Alice shook her head. "This is... this is too much." She sat down. "What... what on Naixe is happening?"

Now that Alice's curiosity had been somewhat pacified, I stepped forward. "Uh, so you're the Celebi from that fable, right?"

Celebi nodded. "That's me! I read that book of fables when we time traveled - it was rather hilarious!"

I blushed. "P-pleased to meet you."

Celebi bowed. "No, the pleasure is all mine." She turned to Naetle. "But I'm still rather confused. If I'm lucky, I can fit a few decades in a single jump. How did we get to this time, some millennia away from the past?"

Naetle tilted his head. "Celebi, I don't know. I appeared here like you did." Then he adopted a look of hope. "I've been looking for Sky and the Passage of Time - do you know where they are?"

Celebi shook her head. "The location of the Passage of Time isn't always in the same place. Sometimes it's in a mountain, other times it's in a forest. Once it was under the sea. It usually stays in one place for a few weeks, then it goes somewhere else. If I had a location, I could take you there, but..." She shrugged. "Right now, I can't help you."

"And as for Sky, I have no clue where he is."

Naetle looked downcast. "Oh... I mean, I thought that you'd know... You know a lot about time travel and all."

Celebi laughed. "Oh, don't be so silly! I'd love to know everything related to time. But aside from having my own personal time hopping abilities, I'm not that different from you."

Celebi then adopted a pensive expression. "Still, we are rather far off from our own time. I'm required to use the Passage of Time to travel anything rather than a few hundred years or so. Only Dialga's power can create Dimensional Holes after all."

"W-what?!" I shouted, drawing attention. "D-Dialga was the one that sent me back in time?!"

Celebi tilted her head. "Yes, I suppose that is so." She then leaned in. "Tell me, Eevee, what is your name?"

"Glacia VII of Eonia Kingdom." I recited, the words falling from my tongue.

Celebi gained a pensive look. "Eonia Kingdom... Oh, I've been there on one of my trips through the Passage of Time! It's a nice place."

I nodded. "It was nice, back then..."

As we talked, Alice got up. "I... I don't know what's happening. Characters from fairy tales are talking right in front of me." She pinned me with a stare. "You're... you're from that ancient kingdom?"

I nodded. "We... we didn't think you'd believe us if we told you the truth." In for a penny, in for a pound. "We had to worry about Night, too."

Alice looked confused. "Night? The prison warden? What's she got to do with any of this?"

Celebi tilted her head as well. "Who is this Night you're talking about?"

I resigned myself to the explanation. Over the next half-hour, I informed Alice and Celebi of what Night was planning, and what she was capable of.

I don't know what I was expecting. Looking back on it, I only believed Vinia about Night in the first place because of the wanted posters. They had specific information missing, information that should have been on them.

Alice and Celebi had no such reason to believe us.

"So, let me get this straight. You're saying that the medical girl, that apprentice to Ms. Kiss-"

"Vinia, yeah."

"She's the daughter to the prison warden of Jeden City, Night. Night has been brainwashing hundreds of Pokemon in secret, including the Captain. This has been going on for years, without anyone knowing about it. The way you know this is because Vinia herself told you. The only reason you believed her is because of a strange bounty poster."

The way Alice laid the facts down made me feel a bit foolish, but I stood resolute. "I'm telling you the truth! How else would Sky's wanted poster have no species?!"

"Glacia, have you checked the wanted posters for higher ranking outlaws?"

A dark feeling sunk into my stomach. "No...?" We still didn't check the higher ranked outlaws. In retrospect, that was a stupid lack of action.

"Well, they recalled those posters that had no species on them. There was an error, and not all the information was there. Do you know what they changed in them?"

"No..." I hadn't told Alice what species Sky was.

"The species Sky was. You know to what species they changed it to, from Unknown?

"No!"

"Piplup."

"NO!" I grabbed my head. What was happening? Somehow... somehow, there were still information leaks.

Were... were the wanted posters actually true? Did Sky actually steal those documents?

Alice scoffed. "Glacia, I like you, but you're too gullible. A misprinted wanted poster, and you're left thinking there's a huge conspiracy going on. Did you ever stop and consider, 'Has one of my friends lied to me?'?"

I couldn't answer.

Then Tom stepped up. "No, she hasn't. And I haven't either, Alice." I felt shudders and saw Tom shaking. "I... I trust Vinia, Alice. They're my friends, and I'm sorry, but I'll believe in them."

Alice's eyes lit up, and a core of fear appeared within me. Then, somehow, she calmed down. "Tom... you idiot." She turned around. "Grow up a little bit, would you? Stop believing everything you hear." Alice grabbed Ken, who was still half-conscious. "See you later." She started walking out of the clearing.

Tom stepped forward, a quiver of fear in his voice. "Wh... where are you going?!"

"To wake Ken up, Tom. I still have to train him, you know." She turned to face him. "I'm going to try to forget everything tonight. Most of all, your utter naivety, Tom." She sighed. "For now, leave me alone so I can deal with this."

Tom recoiled. "I..."

Alice left.

The clearing was silent. Naetle had been watching the argument. He had grown angry when Alice had doubted us. Then he, along with the rest of us, turned dumbstruck when Alice had revealed the revised posters.

Celebi, on the other, looked pensive.

I turned to Celebi, pleading. "Celebi, you have to believe us! Not for our sake, but your own!"

If Night - or anyone else, for that matter - found Celebi, they might try to use her. I didn't want Celebi to have to time travel backward, considering that she's probably the only one that can use the Passage of Time.

Celebi floated in place. "I'm not sure, Glacia, Naetle. I've seen a lot of weird things, but… I don't know, it seems a bit strange. Are you sure that this… er, 'Night', is after you?"

There was nothing the three of us could say. All the evidence we had for Night's wrongdoings were Vinia's firsthand accounts.

Naetle and I turned to Tom, but he still seemed to be in a little shock after what Alice had said. He wouldn't be much help for the time being.

"We… we're sure, Celebi." The words spilled out of my mouth, though for once I doubted their veracity.

Celebi considered what I had said for a second, then shrugged. "Alright."

It was a bit silent in the clearing after that. Naetle coughed. "Celebi, what do you... mean?"

Celebi did a little loop in the air. "I'm assuming you want me to hide, right? From this 'Night'?"

We nodded. "Y-yes."

Celebi twirled. "Well, that's alright! After all, someone as special and wonderful as me can't fall into the hands of some evil Gardevoir." She then shrugged. "I have more important things to do as well - like look for my dear Grovyle!"

"G-Grovyle?"

Naetle's eyes widened. "You... are you saying that Grovyle is in this time?!"

Celebi nodded. "I can feel that he's somewhere on this... Naixe, though I'm not exactly sure where. I don't have the strongest senses, after all."

The Temporal Grovyle... I'd like to meet him.

Then Celebi began to float away.

"Wait! Where... where are you going?!"

Celebi turned to me. "I'm... going to look for Grovyle." She was rather confused. "Glacia, didn't I say that?"

I couldn't respond. Somehow I had thought that Celebi was going to stick around for more than an hour. Now it looked like she was off on her way.

"Where will you look?" Naetle asked, a little concerned.

Celebi thought for a second. "Oh... I'll find him eventually. I don't tend to stick around anywhere for too long, except for my forest. I'll have to scour the entirety of Naixe to find him. It won't be too difficult." She waved. "Thank you for the wonderful night!"

With a flash of light, Celebi disappeared from the clearing. Tom, Naetle and I were the only ones left in the clearing.

Tom was mentally out of commission, so we decided to leave him be, and left the clearing - or at least, we tried to. Before we could step foot outside, Tom cried out. "P-Please!"

Naetle and I turned to face Tom. "What is it, Tom?" I replied, somewhat, distant. I was in my own little funk as well.

"D-Don't leave!" I could see that Tom's eyes were somewhere far away. I turned my own blank eyes to Naetle.

"I'll stay," I said, my voice bland. Naetle, a little creeped out by the both of us at the moment, nodded and left for the campsite.

Soon, Tom and I were alone in the clearing where Celebi had appeared. For some reason, even though it was a balmy night, I felt shivers climb up my spine.

"G-Glacia?" Tom whispered.

"Yeah?"

"What... what are we doing? Who are we - who am I?" Tom asked, tone breathless.

"I'm the princess of Eonia Kingdom. You're an amnesiac Litwick. We're time travelers. We're trying to find a Piplup called Sky who has a 'Dimensional Scream'. We're doing this so we can find a Passage of Time to return to our own times."

That summed it up, I thought. But only a few months ago, I would have dismissed everything but the first sentence as fiction.

In fact, it all felt rather empty. We had knowledge - which seemed to be wrong all the time. We had power - until we needed to do something important.

We used to have hope - until we found it was an illusion the whole time.

My friends feel strange and alien at the best of times - sometimes, I can't understand them. Some things set people off in strange ways. Some people, even if they like you, don't want to stick around.

"We... I'm not ready for this. For any of this." Tom confessed. "I wish I was a Chandelure, an adult - then I'd know what to do."

But we wouldn't get the chance - the time travel ripped everything away. Lord Black, the Umbreon general from back in my time, may have been the spark, but the time travel was the flame.

The time travel's distortion ripped away our ability to evolve as well, as Naetle had told me. I wouldn't be able to become a Glaceon any more. I was now trapped as an Eevee. Even if I did return, all I'd be was the former heir. For others to consider you as an adult, you'd have to complete your Evolution. If you hadn't, you were still nothing but a child.

Vinia would turn into a Kirlia when she got older, and then into a Gardevoir. Once Merla matures enough, she'll be a Volcarona.

Tom, Naetle, and I? We're stuck.

We sat on the clearing for a little while. To tell the truth, I'm not even sure we're doing the right thing anymore. What if the radar doesn't work? What if Night isn't as bad as Vinia claims she is? What if Sky is as bad as the wanted posters say? What if...

At some point, I fell asleep.

* * *

I felt rather strange. I knew that I should be on something soft, or at the very least, dirty. I've woken up like that for the past few months, after all. I've gotten used to it.

Instead of that warm feeling, though, I laid on a cold and hard surface. I tried, for a few minutes, to get a good position to relax on. Feeling bored, though, I got up.

Then I experienced deja vu.

Fantastical colors swirled about as strange wisps floated about. My claws clinked on the floor as I walked about.

Where... I've been here before, haven't I? But when exactly? All I remember is going to sleep and...

... here. I'm here again.

If I'm remembering right, this is the place where I had first dreamt myself into - my first dream world. Back then, only two and a half months ago... how much have I changed?

I had spent thirty minutes wasting time and enjoying myself in simple pleasures when I had come here.

How...

... fun. How fun. I actually wanted to do it again - to pretend I was only some princess. Before I knew about Night. Before I had met the awful Captain Falcon. Before I had met Tom. Before I had traveled through time. Heck, before the revolution back in my time! This was the last bit of fun I had, without any past thoughts niggling around in my head.

I cracked a smile. Here, I wouldn't have to worry about any of those problems. In fact, I'll take my time here while I can!

For the longest while, I played around. I made the wisps giggle (they were definitely sentient and sapient). I chased my own tail, an enjoyable task.

I made it a genuine vacation and did my best to forget about my problems in their entirety. For a small while, I even succeeded.

I petered to a stop, though. While I was much more fit than I was as the crown princess, I didn't have infinite stamina. I reached my stopping point and laid on the cold, marble-like ground.

It was nice here. There wasn't much to do, not that many books, but I had gotten used to that. I enjoyed exploring much more, though

I tapped on the ground, thinking. If I remembered right, there was a passage down there, below the floor. I had blown a hole through the ground with a Shadow Ball and jumped straight through.

Oh, what the heck. Sure, things could hurt me in dreams. I remembered that strange Miasma creature, especially. But I've gotten used to battle. I wouldn't lie on the ground anymore, like some chump.

Let's see what's actually 'down there'.

I cock my head back and gather energy for a Shadow Ball. A massive Shadow Ball appeared into existence, its form calm. With ease, I fired it at the ground.

The ground didn't explode like every other instance I've used Shadow Ball. Instead, it melted and merged into the ground, causing ripples. It reminded me of a drop of water falling into a puddle.

"Why did...?" Then I remembered what Dad's Shadow Ball looked like, all the way back when I learned it. It had melted into the wall, too.

I had finally mastered Shadow Ball. I mean, sure, it took a few months and some temporal shenanigans, but I made it.

It didn't help my case, though.

But that didn't stop me. Over the past month, I've been expanding my repertoire. I learned Bite by emulating Naetle. I've learned Refresh through some complementary lessons on healing by Vinia. And finally, I ooze the cuteness needed for Baby Doll Eyes.

My proudest achievement, though, is Swift. As my most versatile move, it gives me a lot of control over the battlefield. Tom and Naetle can go have fun with their raw power. I needed some actual techniques and strategies to make my battles work. For reliable power, I could only rely on Shadow Ball, after all.

Swift gave you so many options, though. It gave me a revolving defense, a routing offense, crowd control, a way to shepherd enemies, and a smoke screen. No matter what, Swift had you covered.

I sent a few glowing stars over to some random spot on the ground. One by one, the stars slammed into the ground. At the final burst, a crack appeared in the ground.

Something I could exploit.

After a few more Swifts, the crack opened wide into a hole. I opened the hole wide enough so that I could jump into it and took a literal leap of faith.

I twisted and turned in the ether, deciding to relax and enjoy the trip. Plus, no one had to push me in this time. Oh, that reminded me - I still haven't paid that gremlin wisp back for what he did to me.

I landed in the underground passageway and bounced a little bit. After shaking myself off, I took a good look around.

Torches lit a corridor forward. That was where I had gone before, assuming that this was the same place as a few months ago.

There were no lights back, though - and that's the direction I'm going in. I'm not dealing with that giant scary orb thing that had attacked me. The memory from then is somewhat faint, but I remember the orb gave a smaller orb a quiz or something.

It was rather odd, and I'm not going to risk incurring its wrath again.

The passageway without torches was pitch black. Luckily, I can use my Swift stars as a temporary light source - the possibilities are endless.

I walked for some time in the pitch black corridor. I didn't interact with anything, but then again, my Swift scared them off.

Then, out of the blue, torches, began to line the walls. I blinked a little bit but walked onwards.

The torches continued for some time, before they stopped appearing in the corridor. At that point, I stopped, as my exploring senses were tingling.

At that point, I looked up and saw a small hole peeking up at me.

A circle. I've been walking in circles.

I narrowed my eyes. If there is anything else down here in the underbelly of this dream world, I've passed it in my circling.

I send my Swift stars to illuminate the walls, making sure that I could actually see what was on them. Strange markings covered the walls, of course. That was par for the course in a mysterious place like this.

I shook my head. Repeatedly over the last few months, my fiction books... the heroes in them don't seem to have much trouble with their problems. Oh sure, they struggle to defeat the big monster they have to face. But they always face the problem with a large smile on their face and conviction in their every step.

Over the past few months, I suppose I've been in an adventure of my own. But... it has been the farthest thing from fun.

But I digress.

I started looking at the markings on the wall. They seemed to be your average Arceist markings. It depicted things like the creation of the world and birth of the creation trio.

It was nothing I hadn't seen before. But it was strange nonetheless. This isn't the last place I would think to find Arceist paintings, but it was nowhere near the first.

That did beg the question, though - where am I? I can't help but think of this place as a dream world. But Tom doesn't sleep, and there were no other Pokemon around, aside from the average ones.

Let's ignore the possibility that this is the dream of an average Pokemon. Then this is either my dream - which I'm not too sure about - or I'm in some other place.

I shook my head. This is complex, to be honest.

I decided to keep on investigating the walls. They seemed to go on about the creation of the Pokemon World, and how the various species came to be.

Then... I saw something new.

There were strange creatures appearing on the wall. I knew they weren't Pokemon. The artist drew them in a different way from even Arceus and the rest of the legendaries.

These...

These are humans.

Tom and Naetle had once described to me what a human looked like - bipedal, shaped like a Lucario or Gardevoir, Pecha colored skin, built like a Fighting-type...

It's not completely foreign. Looking at drawings of the humans, they seem like humanoids (was that where the term came from?) similar to Hitmonchan. Yet, as I look at them, I sense a strange disconnect. They're different from Pokemon, like Berries, but... different.

I can think of berries as not Pokemon. They don't think, they don't eat, they can't use moves, etc. But humans... they're more than that.

And that... that frightens me in some way.

Did Arceus destroy the human race to save Pokemon kind? Maybe... he saved only a few humans, like Tom and Sky, because they were... I don't know, special or something.

I kept on looking at the wall. The humans grew in numbers, until they eclipsed the size of the Pokemon population. I hoped that was only symbolic.

Then... there was a gouge.

A figure was drawn with gouges. It stood among the rest of the carvings.

There were more carvings forward, and I walked forward to illuminate them.

On a single mural, there was only ever one gouge-man. But while the gouge-man didn't change across the different murals, the humans did.

A strange pit grew in my stomach. I looked onward, forgetting to maintain the Swift.

The humans started lying down in the murals, and strange lines radiated from them. Ten or fifteen murals down from the first one with the gouge-man, the human figures began lying down.

Then, even more strange, the humans began to disappear. One by one, the human markings started to disappear from the murals. As I walked onward, I started to feel a little confused. What did this mean?

Soon, all the human carvings were gone. There was only a single human left.

Then a single white ball appeared in the mural.

And then the last human disappeared.

Was... what was this?

I noticed that I could still see, even though I had passed by all the torches long ago. I had also dismissed all my Swift stars.

I turned around and came across the large ball of light.

"So... two thousand years later, you still trespass again." There was a modicum of silence. "Tell me, before I eviscerate you. Why, and how, are you here?"

"W-what do you mean?" My voice was trembling.

The ball of light considered me with disdain. "This is my domain, and as you can see I am very territorial. I don't take very kindly to uninvited visitors. Why - but more important, how - are you here?"

"I'm here because..." I was tongue-tied. "I was... curious?"

The ball was silent for a short time. "... and how? How do you continue to intrude upon this realm? How are still alive, even though many thousands of years in Naixe's history have passed?"

"I... I can intrude upon dreams. I can travel to the worlds inside people's heads. I... I didn't mean to come here."

The ball pointed up. "Then what is that?" The hole was still in sight, for some reason.

"That... that was the curiosity."

The ball studied me. "As for how you are still alive, let me make a guess. You traveled forward in time, correct? That, or you are immortal."

I couldn't keep the shock off my face. "Yes... it's the first one... how did you know?"

"There is a distortion of space around you. It bugs me."

I shrunk back.

The ball turned away and sighed. "My rage had fallen away. I can see that you didn't mean to intrude. Nonetheless," it turned an irritated gaze upon me. "You've made a lot of trouble for Tom."

"For Tom?" I was a little confused - Tom didn't seem to be in much trouble. Then I remembered that Tom was the name of the smaller ball of light.

The ball nodded. "I was the one who placed him down in the world."

Placed him down in the world...

"Wait, so my Tom is... is that Tom?!"

The ball was a featureless ball, so I had no actual evidence of its disdain, other than its voice. "There aren't any other Toms in the time I placed him in, the time we're in now. Litwick, correct?"

For some reason, this had dumbfounded me. I mean, it makes sense, on some level. They have the same name, same attitude, etc.

But in all my musings on the subject of Tom, never had I connected him to the ball... named Tom.

Sometimes, I can't help but think I'm rather smart. Then I always come across someone who makes me feel like an idiot. Always.

The ball noticed my shock and sighed. "Of course you found him." The ball sounded defeated. "Oh, what's the point of killing you at this point?"

"None at all!" I agreed, making haste. The mention of my future murder managed to snap me out of it. "I'm innocent!"

"No, you are not." The ball denied. "I should have suspected that it would have tried to interfere. It's listening to us right now."

I was beginning to feel confused. "What's 'it'?"

The ball decided to be cryptic, of course. "What can rewrite preordained fate, of course."

"'Rewrite preordained fate'?" I parroted. "What on Naixe are you talking about?"

The ball sighed again. "You know what, Glacia? This is my sacred domain, where only those I permit can enter with their spirit intact. You have trespassed not once, but twice."

I began to fidget. "But I-"

"I don't care, Glacia. If you want to exist beyond a few minutes from now, you will make a deal with me."

I gulped. Tonight had reminded me of my books. When a hero (myself, in this scenario) meets with an ancient evil (the ball), it's a bad idea to make deals with them. They tend to blow up in your face, in the end.

"Well, Glacia? Do you want to live?"

I gulped. "What... what do you want me to do?"

"Oh, it's nothing," the ball 'explained'. "I want you to tell a certain person something."

A creepy tingle crawled down my spine. "What... what do you want me to do?"

"You know a spider, right?"

A spider? Who on Naixe could the ball be talking about...

"Myga?!"

The ball nodded. "Yes, that's her name." The ball continued. "If you want to live, you must tell 'Myga' something."

What on Naixe could the ball want with someone as uninteresting as Myga?

"Promise me, on your life and spirit, that you will tell 'Myga' that the time for the true Ahriman to awaken has come."

As the ball said that, an awful chill fell over me. "Ahriman?" A strange feeling crawled up my spine. "What does that mean?"

The ball scoffed. "I'm not going to say it again." It began to glow with a bright light. "Remember, tell Myga that, or I will come after you." An eerie glow settled over the corridor. "I don't have to wait around for you, after all."

I gulped. "Y-yes, right away," I promised.

Then the corridor began to dissolve around me, and I started to scramble and flail around in the middle of the air.

The ball's voice continued to echo through the abyss as I fell through the void. "Remember our deal, Glacia. I want to see where you will take your destiny."

* * *

"Hey!" A somewhat familiar voice rings through my head. I force my eyes open.

I'm awake in our tent, back at the campsite. Merla was hovering, a concerned look on her face. Ken, who I recognized only after a few seconds, was nursing a sooty spot on his down of feathers.

Merla turned an annoyed eye to him. "Thank you, Ken." Her voice was icy. "Now Glacia is awake because of you."

Ken snorted and turned his head away. "How is someone supposed to have a good sleep with you staring at them all the time?"

Merla colored. She opened her mouth to put Ken in his pace. "I can't believe you, you-"

"S-stop..." I stopped Merla, shaking my head. Merla immediately quieted down, although she looked a bit grumpy. Somehow, I felt that she wanted to put down Ken.

An old grudge?

"I... where's Myga?" Once I had somewhat collected myself, I forced myself to ask the pertinent question. "I need to go ask her something?"

Merla adopted a quizzical look. "Myga? She's with Koga and Alice. Why are you-" Before she could finish asking her question, I was already halfway out of the tent. "Glacia? Where are you going?"

I stepped outside, dodging Merla's increasing curiosity and concern. The morning was warm and bright, and the various Venturers were milling about. Everyone was packing up and was feeling a bit eager and anxious. We were nearing the Arc, where we would conduct the breaking.

I dodged through the masses of Pokemon and headed for Team Zelda's tent. Assuming they weren't already done with their packing, we - I - would be able to meet them there.

Sure enough, the three members of Team Zelda were packing up for what would look like the final day of the trip. I cleared my throat and approached the busy Myga.

"Er, excuse me, Myga?" I asked her, feeling a bit peaked. The dream had taken its toll on me - my thoughts were strange and disoriented. The chill I had felt in the dream prickled up and down my spine. It was familiar, but I couldn't quite place where the feeling originated from.

The electric spider turned to me in surprise. "Glacia? What are you doing here?"

My mouth began to move of its own accord. "The time for the true Ahriman to awaken has come."

The chill spiked over my back, which proceeded to arch. Behind me, the two other members of Team Zelda raised their eyebrows in confusion.

"Glacia? What are you talking about?" Koga, who had been stretching for the march, asked.

"I don't know," I answered.

Myga turned a bemused gaze to me. "Well, thank you?" She questioned. "I have no idea what 'the Ahriman' thing is, but... glad to know."

As Myga said 'Ahriman' again, the chill grew even more. My eyes began to burn and sting.

"Please... stop..." I heard a faint moan behind me. I turned to see a distraught and panicking Merla. She had curled up into a ball. "Please... stop saying that."

Myga stepped back. "I... I'm sorry?"

Koga sent a sharp look toward us both. "Don't say that word, Ahri... Don't say it again." He warned. Turning to Merla, he issued a proclamation. "That word... don't say it. I don't know why, but it doesn't seem to be good for Merla's health."

Feeling nauseous, I walked to Merla. "Merla..." I choked out. "Let's go back to get ready." Merla nodded, and together we walked outside.

That ball... what did it force me to say? Every time we said that word, a chill grew stronger and stronger over me. It was receding, but I nonetheless felt the slightest bit paranoid.

Merla seemed to come to her senses. "G-Glacia... what was that?" She questioned in a whisper.

I shook my head. "I don't know," I stated, hopeless. "I... I don't know at all."

Merla nodded herself. "I feel... it's awful. I don't know why, but it... it reminds me of something. It reminds me of something terrible."

The chill was receding, but I remained on edge. "Let's... let's go get ready," I offered.

We met up with Naetle and Tom back at the camp, with Ken sitting there as well. They seemed to be arguing amongst themselves.

"... I don't know where they went! Glacia seemed to want to do something, and Merla followed her. I tried to follow along too, but I had a dizzy spell, and they left in the meantime!"

Tom looked almost apoplectic with his worry. "What if they're hurt? What if-"

Naetle interrupted Tom. "No," he stated, with a confident stance. "They're not in trouble, Tom. Glacia wanted to do something, and Merla followed her. That's all." Then he pointed at me and Merla; we were in his range of sight. "Look, there they are."

Tom looked ecstatic. I began to wonder if he was developing Merla's issues, as that sort of look was familiar.

"You guys... you're back!" he shouted, with glee and relief in his voice.

I somehow cracked a smile. "Tom, I wasn't leaving." Alice's abandonment must have rather hurt him. They had grown close during the last week. Alice's... dropping of him... came completely out of left field. It was bizarre. "I'm not going to leave you."

The smile fell from Tom's face, replaced with a frozen look of doubt.

The chill grew in my veins, freezing my blood.

'You can't keep that promise, you know,' it whispered. 'You can't control fate. He's already had that promise broken to him once already. Do you want to have it broken again?'

"Did Alice say that?" I whispered to Tom. He nodded.

Oh... oh no...

The five of us were completely silent.

Ken began to walk away. "I'm... I'm going to back to Team Zelda. I'll... I'll talk to you guys later." Our tentative new friend escaped from the situation. I wish it was that easy for me to do.

"What did Alice say?" Merla asked, cutting through the thick silence.

"A... a few nights ago... in a cave... Alice promised she'd never abandon me... and now..."

It had appeared Naetle or Tom had briefed Merla on the situation with Alice. Her eyes turned stone cold. "I see."

I turned completely around, so I was facing Team Zelda's tent. As Ken stepped into the tent, I began to walk to the tent as well. I was going to give Alice the largest piece of my mind.

I walked through the much less dense crowd, the blades of grass crunching under my feet as I walked. I bumped into a few Venturers, but shoved past them.

I was about to enter the flap to Team Zelda's tent when I felt something grab my tail. Furious, I turned around to see a frantic Tom.

"G-Glacia, no!" He begged. "I... no!"

I bared my teeth. "Tom, I'm going to destroy Alice, for what she did to you. Let me go."

Tom shook his head. "I can't. This... we'll make Alice apologize in some other way."

"Apologize? For what, exactly?"

Alice stepped out of the tent. The commotion Tom and I had been causing must have attracted some attention. There were plenty of other Pokemon looking at us as though we were aliens. In fact, I spotted Team Link looking rather confused.

I opened my mouth to respond to her, but she shook her head. "If you want to say anything to me, let's do in the tent. We're going to get ready to pull it down, so we'll need your hands."

Somehow, she ushered Tom and I inside. Ken and the rest of Team Zelda were finishing up the packing.

Alice handed us a pile of Apples. "There, pack that into the food bag. We'll be pulling the tent down in a few minutes."

Tom put Apples in the bag. I didn't.

"Alice, why did you hurt Tom? I demand to know." I straightened my posture, almost unaware of it. Dad would be proud. "As your pr... please tell me."

Alice turned a snarky eye onto me. It seems she didn't appreciate my regal demeanor. "You know, Glacia, I don't particularly like your voice right now. You're doing well in pissing me off if that's what you want to know."

I laughed, my voice hollow. "Oh, so you're going to pretend that you didn't make that promise. That you didn't break Tom's fragile heart?"

"Break his heart?" Alice made some sound of confusion. "What are you talking about?"

The rage exploded. "You told him you'd never abandon him! You told him that you would always stick by his side! Now you've gone and told him to shove off!"

Alice raised an incredulous eyebrow at me. "Yeah... for a night."

"F-for a night?" Tom piped up, confused yet hopeful. "I... you're not..."

Alice stilled for several seconds. Then she sighed. "Oh... oh no."

"Now do you see what you've done to Tom?! Do you see how much you've hurt him?!" I demanded, raising my voice.

"Tom, do you have insecurity problems?"

Alice's question caught us both off guard.

"I... I don't think... I'm not sure?" Tom offered, a little weak.

"Tom, you shouldn't be so scared if I want to be alone for a night," Alice stated. "I don't know why, but you're way too clingy. You need to lighten up and learn to trust me."

Tom was silent. I was frothing.

"What... who do you think you are?!" My blood froze over, and the air I was breathing started to solidify. Alice stepped backward, confused, but not distressed. "Tom has done nothing wrong! Don't try to pin this on him, you witch!"

"What's wrong with you, Glacia?" Alice asked a little concerned. "You're usually much calmer than you are now." Her temper seemed to be rising, though.

"Don't try to trick me, monster!" I leaped at her, ready to extinguish her flame.

Then Tom caught me by my tail. "Glacia, what's wrong?" I heard him ask. "You're... you're scaring me!"

I bared my teeth at him. "Let me go, Tom. I need to rip out her throat." The tent went silent. All stares were on me.

Tom shook his head. "I... no, Glacia, I..." Then his eyes narrowed. "Glacia, what's wrong with you?!"

I stared Tom dead in the eyes. "If you don't let me go right now, Tom, you'll regret it."

Fear enveloped Tom's eyes, and he let me go.

By all measures, I should have leaped at Alice then, ready to destroy her to the best of my abilities.

Tom's fear, though, chained me to the ground. Not out of shame, though, but out of a sense of... joy?

What... what is wrong with me?

I tore out of the tent with Quick Attack, weaving my way through the dense crowd. For some reason, ice blossomed with my every step. I heard Tom call out after me. I ignored him. I shot into the forest, almost tripping along the way. I had to get away... get away from everyone.

* * *

A small while later, I found myself in an unfamiliar clearing - of which there seemed to be a lot around here. I speculated they were the old campsites of the previous Breakers.

I sat down. The chill - which was now an understatement - pulled at my muscles, begging me to go back to the campsite. Some part of me wanted to listen.

But I couldn't. If I went back, I would turn into that strange, murderous Pokemon again.

Somehow, that word... Ahriman... it-

The chill coursed through me, stronger than ever before. It bit and tore through my skin, and I huddled into a small ball to ward it off.

Ugh, now only the thought of the word Ahriman would-

The chill shrieked through my muscles, and I couldn't manage to bite back a scream.

No more thinking of that word. The ball... I shouldn't have trusted it. It didn't care that I said it to Myga - all it wanted to do was make me say the word. It chose the most random, least important person in my life so I would feel at ease.

It was a trap. The word, Ahri- no! The... Taboo, yeah... it causes these weird chills. And the rage too, most likely.

How could I have been so stupid? Alice... what she did wasn't too nice, but what I did to Merla was at least three times worse. And what I said was with malice! Alice wanted some alone time, and I was thinking she was as bad as Catal.

I had to stay here, for now. I... it would be a bad idea for me to return to the campsite. I'll have to catch up later. The rest of Team Ness and Vinia... they can handle Night for now.

This problem has become much more pressing.

I sat down and leaned next to a tree. Why can't I be a normal person? No time travel, no Taboo... I don't even want to be a princess anymore.

Well, no I liked being a princess. I didn't mind it that much. I only had a few issues with being the crown princess of Eonia. All the stuffy rules and regulations I had to follow and the lack of anything exciting in my life drained me.

In fact, what had peeved me most back in Eonia were my siblings and the fact I couldn't become a scholar.

If I could, I would take it all back in a heartbeat. I've had no victories in the future. Every time I made progress on the front of returning back home, something would appear to distract me. Sky, Night, Catal, Celebi... now, the Ahriman.

Icy pain roiled through me. At this point, it was attacking my skin. I coughed some dark mist. Wait, dark?

A strange spike of fear rose. I purposefully coughed and... more mist. More dark mist.

It was... it was Miasma. It was unmistakable.

The cursed mist flew around my limbs, caressing me like a demented cat.

Then a voice rang out - a strangely familiar voice. With a strange precision, I recognized it as the voice of the being that had first dragged me to the future.

"Hello, Miss Glacia. Care to recognize me now?" The Miasma whispered to me, mocking me. "I did what you told me to do. I brought you to the castle grounds. Now it is your turn to do something for me.

"Miss Glacia… say that word."

With the order the Miasma thickened, almost bubbling around me.

"No! S-stop!" I blubbered. I flew into a panic, releasing Swift stars into the air and commanding them to slam into the mist. Instead, they tore through the ethereal curse, leaving it undamaged.

'Miss Glacia...' The Miasma crooned. 'All I'm asking you to do is just say that name again... over and over... it will strengthen me... empower me...'

"No!" The ice was spreading on the dirt of the clearing, spilling over it as if someone had knocked over a glass of water. My paws weren't bothered by the ice much, though.

Then I took a look at my reflection. It was by chance, an awful, awful chance.

In my reflection, I saw the color of my fur - a sickly mauve.

I was turning Inverted.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

My scream tore through the forest serenity causing plenty of Pidgeys and Pidove to flee. The Miasma relished in my scream of anguish. It twisted and turned in my blood, stronger than before.

I can't... I can't stay like this. I'm not like Merla, I'll crack soon. I'll turn into this thing's... this thing's puppet.

I'll lose my identity, my heart, my soul. And nobody will be able to help me... nobody.

"Glacia!" A familiar shout echoed in the clearing. I froze.

Then Vinia, of all people, showed her face.

"Glacia! What's happening?!" She blanched. "Is that... is that Miasma?!"

I nodded, ice cracking in my fur. "Pl...please help me!" I begged, my voice croaking. "You... you have to suppress it!"

Vinia nodded, Teleporting over to my side. She then put her hands together and used both Disarming Voice and Draining Kiss.

The Fairy type moves seemed to work. The Miasma hissed and recoiled when it touched the fairy aura.

An insane joy swept over me. It... right, we could stop the Miasma. All we'd have to do is get someone to look into my dreams like I did for Merla. Then, we could destroy the Miasma and I would be free.

As the minutes crawled by, we beat the Miasma back. Somewhere along the line, I started using Baby Doll Eyes on myself, at the ice that the Miasma had created. The Fairy Type energy helped speed along the process a little bit.

I coughed, and only a tiny wisp of dark mist sprang out, which Vinia's Disarming Voice snuffed in an instant.

The chill finally receded, and the Miasma let out one final, angry shriek at me before it died out.

Both of us collapsed, exhausted.

"G... Glacia?" Vinia questioned. "What on... what happened?" Vinia gulped. "I... the last thing I heard from Tom is that you ran away after yelling at Alice and that you're in the woods. We went in to find you, split up, and... the Miasma?"

"It's..." My breathing became. "It's a curse. A forbidden word." There was no other way to say it.

Vinia looked at me funny. "I have to apologize, but... what are you talking about? A... A forbidden word?"

I spoke with great care. "I can... you know how I can visit people in their dreams?"

Vinia nodded.

"Well, last night I visited some ball of light. It told me to tell Myga, that the time for 'the true Ahri... the true something' to awaken has come."

"The true what?" Vinia looked confused. "The Ahri... what were you going to say?"

"I can't say it!" I cried out, startling Vinia. "It's cursed!"

"What?!"

"Every time I say the word... it makes the Miasma stronger!" Vinia looked dumbstruck. "Right before you came the Miasma was demanding me to say it over and over again."

"But... that's impossible! The Miasma isn't sentient, right?!"

There was nothing I could say to that. It was gas and moved without any purpose. In Merla's mind, it had talked to me, weakened me... but it was playing on my negative feelings. It stopped talking when I gained enough resolution.

Merla told me about her experience with Miasma, too. Merla was able to ignore it ... it played on her desires for friendship, fozar revenge. It never attempted to trick her, though. It never showed the barest signs of actual intelligence, of adaptability.

If... if the Miasma truly is sentient, truly is sapient...

If it had an actual name...

"Vinia! Vinia, where are you!" Another female voice called out. "We've been looking all over for you!"

Myga appeared, pushing her way through some bushes. She spotted Vinia. "There you are! We've been looking for you. We have to regroup so we can find Glaci..." Myga noticed me. "Glacia! Why did you run off like that?" She ran to my side, letting me lean on her.

"Th... thanks. I...I need some rest." I transferred my body weight over to her. "I... needed some alone time."

"No problem!" She chirped, forgetting about my transgression. "Let's go back to the camp. We're about to leave - we can even make it to the Ring today!"

The Ring was the last thing on my mind, but that doesn't matter, not right now.

Vinia scrambled after us, and we made our way out of the clearing and into the dense forest.

"Everyone... everyone's been looking for me?" I asked, leaning in a little close to Myga's ear. "They... they're not upset?"

"Oh, Alice is fuming," Myga said, making a nonchalant leap over a dense bush. "Luckily, Tom and Koga managed to calm her down, and she's helping the rest of us look for you."

"Who.. who was looking for me?"

"Well, there was me, Vinia, Tom, Naetle, Merla of course, Alice, Koga, Ken, and Team Link."

"Team Link?"

Vinia caught up to us, panting a little bit. "Yeah... *pant*... Kol overheard us and wanted to help. He convinced the rest of his Team to help as well - the Prinplup, Vanillish, and Krokorok."

I felt a little heartened. Regardless of my awful actions... they were willing to risk being late to help me. Even Team Link, who I've only known and met in sporadic bursts.

I... I needed to say thank you. To them... to everyone.

Our pace slowed down a little bit. Myga seemed to think that we didn't need to move as fast now, and we were taking our time as a result. I didn't particularly mind, as it gave me some well-needed rest.

It also gave me the time to think about what I was going to say to everyone that had been looking for me. It was going to be a little awkward, but... I hope they would find it in themselves to forgive me.

Then, in the middle of our backtracking through the woods, we heard some rustling in the trees.

I turned to face it on reflex. There, with his furry face sticking out of the bushes, Kol the Luxio stood.

"Kol?" Myga sounded amused. "What are you doing here? I thought we were going to meet back at the tents?"

"Well, I was going there, but then I smelled something weird. When I followed the scent, I found you guys." Kol turned to me, a wry smile adorning his face. "You know, you've caused us a lot of trouble, but no Pokemon left behind and all that. Couldn't leave you here in the forest while the rest of us were off breaking."

"Yeah. I'm sorry I've caused so much trouble. It's... it's been a little hard, that's all." I explained, although I omitted some information.

"The trip has been that hard on you?" Kol asked, a little concerned.

"Uh... yeah." I lied. No need to mention the Miasma.

Myga pushed Kol, joking around a bit. "Don't mind this idiot, Glacia. For now, let's get back to the camp."

The two of them started walking back into the forest. Vinia and I followed, although I was only at a wobble.

It was ten minutes later that I started feeling some concern. I had a strange niggling feeling within me. Something... something wasn't quite right. I ignored it. I had dealt with enough problems today. I'm not going to create another.

Another ten minutes, and I was starting to feel a little concerned.

"Uh... Vinia? How long did it take for you to find me?" I whispered over to her, though I saw Kol's ears twitch a little.

"Only fifteen minutes. Why are you asking?"

Something... something wasn't adding up.

"Did you... did you come straight to the clearing?"

Vinia shook her head, a look of concern developing on her face as well. "No... I looked around for a bit, fanned through the area. It took me a while before I found the clearing."

It had taken me around five minutes to run from the campsite to the clearing where the Miasma had overtaken me.

We had been running for at the very least five minutes before we met Kol. It had been twenty-five minutes now that we've left the clearing.

We should have been back in the Base long before now.

Vinia seems to have caught onto what I was thinking. "It's been a long time, right? Why is it taking so long?"

I shook my head. "I don't know, Vinia," I confessed.

"Maybe..." Vinia sounded out. "Something's put us all under an illusion making us run in weird circles."

That sounded... possible, I guess.

But what Alice had said last night still rang true. I had believed in Night with ease and without much definitive proof. I mean, I still believed in her, because it did explain a couple of things.

But this?

"I don't know... are you sure we're not only walking in circles?" I shrugged. "I mean, I'm pretty sure that's more likely than some illusionist coming and trying to make us a little lost."

"I mean..." Vinia shook her head. "Well, yeah, I guess you're right." She chuckled a little. "I... okay, uh, guys?"

Kol and Myga, who had been conversing as we walked, turned around and made a complete stop. "Yeah?" Myga said, tapping the ground, a little impatient.

"It's been taking a long time since we've started walking. Too long. Have we... have we been walking in circles?"

Myga raised an eyebrow. "No, we're making a small detour. I mean, do you recognize any of these trees?" She gestured to the forest. "If we were walking in circles, we would have passed a few trees a few times by now."

That reasoning felt a little off to me, but I felt relieved nonetheless. "So where are we making the detour to?"

Myga pointed a little bit to the right. "There's a meadow over in that direction. We're heading there so that we can meet up with an old friend of ours before we head back to our Teams. We want to introduce you guys. We think you'll be good friends, you know, expand your circle. Vinia can Teleport you back to the camp, right? You don't need to worry about time."

We nodded. "Oh, er, we're sorry." Vinia bowed. "We'd love to meet your friend."

"Great!" Myga tapped Kol on the shoulder. He had been watching the conversation silently. "Lead the way!"

A few minutes later, we arrived at the meadow. Flowers in a rainbow of colors bloomed, making me feel like I was in an oil painting.

We went to sit by a particularly scenic pile of rocks. I decided to let myself go and sunbathe a little bit while we waited for Myga and Kol's friend to arrive.

Vinia, who was a little bored, decided to ask a few questions. "So, you guys know each other?"

Myga snickered. "This kid... well, he thought he knew his stuff, right. Thought that as a powerful and prideful..." she snickered. "Shinx, he could defeat the tiny little Joltik."

Kol looked away. "You make it sound as though you won without effort."

"But I won!" She crowed. "I won and you lost! So there!"

Myga seemed a lot less uptight when she was with Kol. She was much more amicable around him, completely ignoring us in the process.

"After that, I introduced Kol to my third friend. The three of us became best friends. We had so much fun, messing around and sparring." Myga sighed. "The good old days."

Kol and Myga smiled. Vinia, though, was frowning.

I scooted over to her. "Vinia, why do you look so miserable?" Again, Kol's ear twitched.

"It's just... well, I thought I'd scoop a little happiness off the top of their conversation. You know, join in the joy."

I adopted a puzzled look. "So... do it. I mean, it looks like there's enough happiness to go around twice with those two." They had fallen somewhat silent, though. I guess Vinia somewhat put a damper on them.

Vinia shook her head. "But there is none."

I narrowed my eyes. "What are you talking about? They look plenty happy."

"But they're not happy. I can't sense any happiness off of them. They're smiling and laughing, but I can't feel anything off of them."

Then Vinia doubled over as if someone knocked the wind out of her.

"Vinia?!" I was immediately at her side. "Vinia, what's wrong?"

"H... Happiness. They're... happy. To the point of... insanity." Vinia wheezed out, clutching her stomach.

I took a look at Kol and Myga. They had stopped their frowning at Vinia and now had adopted serene smiles.

These smiles, though... they were different. Instead of the normal, happy smile, their smile was dopey. They looked at us - or should I say, through us.

They looked like they were on Nip, even though there was no Nip anywhere near here.

Vinia kept muttering to herself. "Why is this strange happiness so familiar. It feels... strange. Artificial."

"Uh... guys?" I asked. "What's... why are you looking at us like that?"

"Oh, no reason," they said in unison.

I started to back away. "Uh... you know, guys, we should be back at camp. They're looking for us. We'll come right back to meet your friend in a minute or two." I went over to Vinia. "Vinia, can you Teleport us back to camp?"

"Oh, yeah, sure, in a minute." She said, dazed. "Let me figure out what's going on first."

I shook my head. "No, Vinia, we need to get out, right now. This... it all feels so wrong..."

Only by reflex did I manage to dodge the attack, as an arc of electricity traveled through the air.

I landed on my butt. "I... w-what?" Then a Thunder Wave arced through the meadow, catching Vinia and I off guard. Vinia and I fell to the ground, paralyzed.

Vinia and I stared at Myga and Kol. For a split second, their eyes turned a neon pink. Vinia started shivering as the two electric types advanced on us.

"Wh-what's going on?!" I cried out. "Why are you two attacking us?"

Myga chuckled, but it felt much more sinister than it had before. "Oh, it's nothing personal, Glacia. Our third friend wants you two to stick around." She then fired a web at me, sticking me to the ground.

"S-Stop!" I struggled in vain. "K-Kol! Help me!"

Kol turned to Myga. "You need me to help trap them some more, or...?"

Myga shrugged. "It's your call, Kol."

"Alright, then." Kol turned to me. "Sorry, Glacia, but no. I'm not helping your smug bratty face anymore. No offense."

What... what's going on?

Vinia finally collected herself, then noticed the situation we're in. "Glacia, what's going on?"

I locked eyes with her. "Myga and Kol... they're attacking us for some reason." I continued to struggle. "Help me, please?" I begged. Vinia nodded and Teleported over to where they had trapped me.

Vinia closed her eyes, appearing to concentrate. "Teleporting, now!"

Nothing happened.

Vinia opened her eyes, panicking. "What... what's going on? I... I can't Teleport!"

Myga snickered. "Well, that's Spider Web for you. Turns out, the Bug-type energy prevents you from Teleporting. A neat trick, you know."

Vinia continued to struggle, and somehow got herself more and more caught in the Spider Web.

"What... what do you two want from us?" I asked.

"Look, Glacia, you wanted to leave so much that we had no choice." Myga's unsympathetic voice rang out. "We just want you to stick around to meet our friend... or should we say, Mistress?"

Then it seemed to click for me and Vinia.

"Yes... time for you to meet Mistress Night."

There was a bright flash in the clearing. Once I opened my eyes, a pale Gardevoir appeared, an empty smile stretched across her face.

I took a glance at Vinia. Her face was stone solid, but an unmistakable glint of fear shone in her eyes.

"Hello, you two." Night drawled. She took a long glance at us. "It looks like you two have had to face some trouble."

The two Electric-types bowed. "We must apologize, Mistress Night. They caught on to the ruse."

Night waved her hands. "It's no matter. In the end, the two of them are here. Glacia and..." she turned a scornful yet amused eye on Vinia. "... my daughter."

Vinia said nothing, her lips locked.

"Did you paralyze them? It would be most unfortunate if they were to fight back."

Kol nodded.

"Wonderful. What about their friends? Will they worry?"

Kol nodded. "Unfortunately, they will. What do you suppose we do?"

Night had been silent for a few minutes. Then she began to plan. "For my daughter, the only one who cares for her is the nurse. We can have her removed and indoctrinated.

"As for Glacia... well, you two can spin a wonderful tale, so make something up. If nothing else, lead your teams in for indoctrination. That Alice will be a concern, but we can imprison her if Nyx doesn't want her."

I began to shiver myself.

"As for Glacia's teammates, lead them on a wild goose chase. Tell them that Team Knight attacked and kidnapped them. That'll get their blood boiling. Team Knight has remained hidden during the morning, so that will remove any sort of alibi. In fact, tell that to your teams as well. We'll be removing them soon enough, so he won't be much cause for concern."

This... this was the mind that could run a conspiracy. One that could manipulate every pawn on the field.

Night had turned to Vinia. "You know, Vinia, your escape attempt was rather hilarious. You do know that from the moment you left your room, I knew what you were doing, right?"

This broke Vinia's facade. "W-what?"

"I have eyes all over the prison. You were more useful to me outside the prison than in it. It was clear that even with serious persuasion, you wouldn't learn to adopt my methods."

She shook her head. "I've needed to remove your face from my heart so that I could actually indoctrinate you as well. Why did you think I continued to show you the indoctrinations, even though you despised them?"

Vinia began to stutter. "Y-you mean...!"

"Yes, I drove you from my prison, but stuck you under my thumb nonetheless."Night sighed. "Oh, that was nice to get off my chest. Monologuing is rather fun, you know."

Hoping to bide some time, I egged her on. "What about Sky? Why do you want him?"

Night sighed. "Trying to bide time, are you?"

I gulped.

"Not like it will help you, at any rate. The Piplup? Yes, we did want him. That Dimensional Scream sounded useful, and time travel is fascinating, at any rate."

I noticed something. "You... wanted him. As in, you don't want him anymore?"

"Well, once we found him- "

My body flashed cold. "You... you found him?"

Kol bared his teeth at me as Night gave me an unimpressed look. "Yes, some Venturers found him. All I had to do was claim the bounty I manufactured. Either way, I soon found him useless."

"Use... Useless?" Vinia said, a little confused. "Why is he useless?"

Night sighed. "You know, I've gotten bored. Kol, Myga, stand by while I hypnotize the two of them to sleep. Knock them out if they do anything to resist."

I jolted into action, trying to struggle my way out of the Spider Web. But it was fruitless - the adhesives in the Spider Web were stronger than anything I could handle right now.

I couldn't attack, either. My Swift couldn't handle three fully-evolved pokemon, not at this stage. They had paralyzed me as well, so any attacks I sent out would be weak and ineffectual.

Vinia sighed next to me. "We've lost," she whispered. "She has everything. Power, intelligence... how can we win?"

Then Night began her Hypnosis.

It coiled on me like a soft blanket, letting me know that it was okay to relax, to fall asleep...

No! I have to focus, I have to get out!

Vinia tried to struggle as well, and she seemed to be doing better than me. We were both weakening though. The Hypnosis was sapping our resolve, and we didn't have anything to stop it and protect ourselves.

All we could do was wait, wait for the end of our freedom...

...

...

...

'You know, Miss Glacia, it doesn't have to be this way." The voice crooned into my ear. 'If you say the word, I will awaken. I will grow in strength and fight off the manipulator for you.'

A chill coursed through my blood, and I gasped, waking somewhat.

The Miasma! It... it was speaking to me, still. It had laid dormant in me for the hour, remaining silent, but it hadn't left.

And I wasn't going to let it out again. It'll corrupt me, turn me evil.

'You'll turn to darkness either way, you know. Once you're under her spell, you'll never break free. You are standing on a precipice leading to your demise, Glacia. I'm offering you my hand.'

'Take it.'

I gulped. The offer sounded enticing, but... wouldn't I be trading one prison for another? Someone will shackle my mind, no matter what direction I go.

The Miasma remained silent. The Hypnosis came again, lulling me into the false sense of security. Vinia was beginning to fall asleep, under Night's spell.

I saw Night's smug face, and a bolt of rage shot through me. If I lose here... there's no going back. No way to win. Night... she won't stop at anything. No Pokemon will be enough to stop her.

At this point... it's my choice.

I sighed.

Okay, Miasma you win.

Ahriman.

The Miasma coursed through my blood, waking me from my stupor. I stared at Night with defiant eyes.

Ahriman.

My breath grew chilly, and the Spider Web began to solidify under my feet.

Ahriman.

Ahriman.

Ahriman.

With each Ahriman, the Miasma's power grew. The Spider Web turned from sticky to brittle by the power of the ice, and dark mist began to surround me.

Vinia woke from the small trance she had fallen into. "G...Glacia?" Her eyes widened. "Glacia! The Miasma!"

Kol and Myga looked nervous. "Madam, what should we do?" they asked, like the puppets they were.

Night waved them off. "Nothing, for now. We can trap them again later. I want to see to what depths Glacia will pull from the Miasma."

The dark mist tore and tugged at my skin, turning it purple again. I ignored it and focused on Vinia.

As she trembled, I spoke to her with a calm and steady voice.

"Vinia," I commanded. "Run."

The web under Vinia's feet froze over. Vinia's eyes widened. Before anyone could react, she wrenched herself from the ice, freeing herself.

Night's eyes widened as Vinia started running away. Then, out of nowhere, her eyes started glowing, and Vinia slammed to the ground.

"Myga, Spider Web!" She ordered without missing a beat, and Myga quickly nodded, before firing another shot of Spider Web at Vinia... before I intercepted it with a Shadow Ball, which I had managed to release in the nick of time.

The two attacks collided mid-air, creating an explosion of bug and ghost energy.

That was enough, though, to free Vinia. Before Night could trap her again, Vinia immediately Teleported away.

Night's eyes widened. "Oh, dear..." She shook her head. "No problem, no problem... if she's smart, she won't call for... The two of you, come over here for teleportation! We need to run damage control!"

Myga and Kol stood next to Night, and grabbing them, Night teleported them away. As they left, I struggled, managing to release one of my legs from the Spider Web.

I had started work on one of my other legs when Night reappeared in the clearing with a flash. A look of deep irritation was on her face.

"Oh, of course, you had to find a way to resist." She put her head in her hands. "Well, I have to apologize, Glacia, but I can't Hypnotize you, not yet. If those two fail to stop Vinia... I won't be able to handle the combined strength of your teams."

She started to unleash a pink mist of her own around the meadow. Whenever the pink mist touched the Miasma, it ate away at it. The chill grew warmer and warmer as the pink mist grew thicker and thicker.

"Misty Terrain is useful, you know, for Miasma management. And since you're already paralyzed, it won't help you with status conditions." She began walking over to me.

I was still stuck in the icy web, though. But desperation struck me, and somehow, with a great burst of strength, I tore myself from the Spider Web. As Night approached me, I used Refresh to rid myself of my paralysis, before Quick Attacking myself away.

As I neared the edge of the clearing, though, she slammed me into the ground with her powers. I tried to summon a Shadow Ball, but to my surprise, it didn't come.

"If you're wondering why you can't use a Shadow Ball, I've used Imprison on you." Night then held up a Shadow Ball of her own. "Imprison not only locks you to the ground but prevents you from using any of our shared moves.

I grit my teeth and tried to use Bite. But my attempts were immediately thwarted by Night's Draining Kiss. It sapped me of my remaining energy.

"Ah... Ahriman." The chill in my blood spiked for a second but receded when it came into contact with the Misty Terrain.

Night grabbed my fur. "Too bad, Glacia." She turned my face so I could see the grin splitting her face. "It was fun while it lasted."

Then, in a blur of light and sound, we teleported away.

And I knew no more.


	15. 15 - A Prison Visit

(Dusknoir)

A torch lit up in the darkness, illuminating a corridor with murals on it.

I have no idea where I am or how I got here.

Before I could truly inspect them, however, I heard a faint sound of disapproval behind me. "Hello there, Dusknoir." I turned around to observe a large sphere of light in the hallway. It's glow illuminated more murals, though I hardly had the time to read them.

"Hello," I decided to start off. "Er... where are we, exactly?"

"We are in a boundary between time and space. This is my own personal haven, a humble abode." The ball explained shortly. "Above us lies the Ghost World, which I assume you are intimate with."

A location, one that I recognized!

"What did you think of Limbo?"

"Limbo?"

"The White World. The Empty World. The Crossroads of Time and Space, where you had remained for all these years." The ball sounded vaguely irritated. "Where I had just brought you from."

"I beg your pardon?" Then something else caught my ears. "All these years?"

"Ah… you've lost your memories of Limbo. Perhaps that was a blessing in disguise." The ball sighed. "You've shown yourself to be much kinder than that Glacia girl. Much cleaner, too."

"Glacia?" The name was foreign to me. "Exactly who is that?"

The ball waved me off. "Oh, you'll find out soon enough. Take your time to walk around, and hey, enjoy your freedom. Where I'm sending you, it might not last that much longer."

I readied Shadow and Ice Punches. "Was that a threat?" I questioned. "I'm not afraid to fight."

"Not really. You haven't irritated me, not as she did." The ball handily explained. "It will be taxing on your soul and identity, but I doubt you will truly fall."

The ball pulsed one last time. "Goodbye, Dusknoir, and good luck."

Somehow, I was falling through the air, in a dark abyss. This wasn't a pleasant phenomenon, either.

That glowing sphere... it implied I was going to face some sort of trial or tribulation in the near future. Was it a Legendary, or was it something else?

And what was that about the Ghost World being above? I've been to the Ghost World before - it was a rather colorful place, spirits flying about everywhere you cared to look. I've explored it as is my tendency. I've never seen that torch-lit corridor, though. Was the sphere lying?

Either way, it wasn't important. I felt a disturbance in my velocity. I was beginning to slow down, which hopefully meant that I wouldn't end up as a gooey puddle wherever - or whenever - I landed.

Then, out of nowhere, a blinding light surrounded me. With a large BOOM, I landed. I gingerly nursed myself as I slowly recovered my sight.

I was in some sort of... facility? Strange... this wasn't the sort of thing you could find in our recovering timeline. I had landed in the middle of a courtyard, with iron walls surrounding me. There was a small yet luxurious fountain, with a quaint garden surrounding it.

It tickled my fancy. I'd better explore, to see what this place is about. Some extra information would help, and perhaps someone to guide me and help me orient myself.

Unfortunately, there seemed to be no exit to this courtyard - there were no doors or anything of that like. It looks like I'll have to phase.

One short trip of intangibility later, and I found myself in a dank, dark, and smelly hallway - as if no one had bothered to clean for some time.

"Night..." A voice groaned. In the darkness of the corridor, I had not looked at the walls, which I really should have. Illuminating the corridor with a few Will-O-Wisps, I found... bars?

"Night..." A Delibird cried, lying on the ground. A smile had stretched across its face as it moaned - as if it was enjoying the present circumstances.

"Are you... alright?" I had to ask, feeling a little concerned. Normally, a Delibird would avoid the Will-O-Wisps, distancing itself as much as possible from me. This Delibird, though... it didn't seem to register my existence.

"Night..." It repeated once more.

"Night?"

"Night..." The Delibird continued to ignore my existence.

Feeling a little bewildered and bemused, I decided to leave. The Delibird was clearly insane - this was most likely some sort of asylum, for the delirious. This wasn't the ideal place to take care of the mentally ill, but in our fractured society...

I headed onward, thanking myself for my sanity.

It was only a short time later before I heard more moaning. "Night..."

Again?

I found another set of bars - a cell, actually - with a Pangoro inside. It too was lying down on the ground, not saying anything.

"Night..." It moaned, smiling.

This was too bizarre. "Excuse me?" I had to ask. "Why are you repeating those words?"

The Pangoro didn't respond. Creeped out, I left.

A few cells later, I was beginning to regret my decision and was considering just leaving. I passed a Nidoking, a Typhlosion, and a Goodra. All of them were unresponsive. All of them were blank in the eye. All of them were lying on the ground. All of them moaning "Night...".

All of them smiling.

I headed onward, and the Pokemon blurred on. A strange chorus rang through the asylum. "Night, Night, Night" it went.

I did my best to ignore it and looked for an exit the best I could. If it got too bad... I'd simply phase and leave immediately, no questions asked. I'd have to return with Grovyle, to demand answers. But... not now.

Then I encountered someone else, someone not in bars and (hopefully) retaining their sanity. I illuminated them with my Will-O-Wisps, revealing a Dragonite. The Dragonite's eyes were focused, paying its attention squarely on me.

"... hello." I offered awkwardly. I glanced around. "Er.. who are you?"

"My name is Henka," An acerbic voice clipped out. "What are you doing here?"

"I… it's a long story." Henka was unlike other Dragonite - his biological kindness was replaced with derision and arrogance. "Could you show me the exit?"

Henka said nothing. Then, bizarrely, he chuckled. "Are you wondering why they're all so… Braindead? Moronic? Infatuated?"

"Yes?" I simply replied, liking the rude Henka less and less. "Is this some sort of asylum, or...?"

The Dragonite continued to chuckle, walking over to the cell which contained a shiny Vanillite. He pulled a key from a bag he had slung over his shoulder and unlocked the door.

I looked on as Henka entered the cell. With a deft movement, he grabbed the Vanillite and lifted them into the air.

I frowned. "What do you plan on doing?" I prepared my energy. Common sense told me he wasn't going to do anything nice.

In response, Henka lit his fist on fire, laughter full-blown. Under my eyes, the Vanillite began to melt. A vacant expression of happiness never left their face.

Immediately I rushed forward and grabbed the Vanillite myself, before tearing it out of the Dragonite's fist. Now was not the time to be gentle.

"What are you doing?!" I shouted, spittle flying everywhere. "Were you trying to kill them?!"

Henka's laughter fell into a chilling smile. "Maybe?" He mocked. "I'm beginning to run out of ways to torture her."

An emptiness settled in the pit of my stomach. Henka was a clear psychopath. With an Ice Punch, I launched myself at him.

Henka caught the punch with a flaming fist. "Before we continue with our little battle, would you please direct your attention to Strawberry over there?"

I simply pushed my ice harder, ignoring him.

He snickered then called out with an faux innocent voice. "Strawberry? It's Daytime."

I felt a little confused but continued to Ice Punch him as he countered with Fire Punches... until I heard a strange sobbing.

I leaped backward from Henka's attack, and looked at the direction of the sobbing, and was met by a startling sight. The Vanillite was crying.

"What... what did you do to her?!" I shouted, a new concern rising.

"Oh... just deactivated the hypnosis for a bit, just a simple trigger phrase." Henka casually explained. "Now that her anesthesia is gone, I can fully enjoy her company." Henka adopted a demented grin. "Her pain is beyond cathartic."

Keeping a strong and hateful eye on Henka, I headed over to where the Vanillite was standing - I couldn't leave her alone like this. It's idiotic, but right now her needs come before my own. I knelt down and started to speak softly. "What's your name?"

"S-Strawberry." She said haltingly, shakingly pointing to Henka. "He's been... he's been hurting me." She sniffed.

I began to see red. "Don't worry, I'll handle him for you," I promised. "You won't have to worry anymore." She nodded, shivering.

Henka sighed. "What a touching moment. Nighty Night!" Strawberry fell back into her trance, moaning "Night" repeatedly over and over again, smiling dumbly.

I faced Henka, newfound hate boiling within me. "Is this all your creation? This... madhouse?!"

"No, this is all Night's work. Notice how they're all moaning her name?" Night was a name, then. She must have been the one to hypnotize them.

Henka shrugged. "As for that girl, Strawberry? I don't really have any issues with her, not personally." His eyes darkened. "It's more personal revenge against her brother. Her screams… like I said, they're cathartic, you know? Almost like my revenge."

I didn't dignify that with a response and rushed forward to take this monster down.

But before I could, however, Henka vanished.

"Goodnight, strange Dusknoir - you're coming with us." Then dark-type energy erupted in my body, and I fell into a hazy stupor for a second, before falling unconscious.

"Come on, come on, wake up already! You've been asleep for hours."

Something was shaking me. I swatted them away, as it was rather distracting. I'd like to... sleep?

Strange... I've never had the need to sleep before.

I open my eyes in a frenzy of worry and make eye contact with a pair of sea-green eyes.

"Oh, wonderful! You're finally awake - now I have someone to talk to!"

I nearly scrambled away from the strangely foreboding aura talking. It… intimidated me in a bizarre fashion. I took a good look at what emitted the aura and what I saw... it confused me.

By shape the Pokemon was a Metagross, that much was obvious. It had the four pillar-like legs and the characteristic cross on its face. It had a strange red-orange-brown color for its main body, with a dark black cross. I had never seen anything like it.

"Waiting for you to wake up has been really, really boring! I mean, it's better than anything else I can do here, but it still took a really, really, _really_ long time! I mean, seriously! I..." The strange Metagross continued to ramble as I collected myself.

As the discolored and excitable Metagross ranted, I began to remember what happened. I was... in that prison...

… I still am, judging by the walls and the bars.

I gripped the bars of the prison. There were more Pokemon lying on the ground, continuing to moan "Night". I was in the same facility I found myself in when I first returned to the normal world.

That means... Henka... Strawberry...

Henka got the jump on me. Once I escaped, I would hunt him down and save that little girl.

I sighed. Right now, though, I was still as lost as ever. I needed to recover - I was injured from the attack Henka landed on me, as a throbbing pain showed.

More than that, I needed information.

I turned to my fellow inmate, schooling my face. "I must apologize, I wasn't paying attention to what you were saying. If you would be so kind as to repeat it?"

The Metagross gave me an eager look. "You want me to say all that again?" Their voice was slightly hoarse, even though he hadn't been talking for very long.

"The short version, if you may."

The Metagross sighed and crossed his arms. "Ugh, you're so stuffy..." I ignored the jab and continued to wait. "Okay, fine." The Metagross grandly waved his arms, energy returning. "Welcome!"

"..."

"Any questions?"

"... that was it?"

"Didn't you want the short version?"

Fair enough."Er... where exactly are we?" I asked. "I mean, I know we're in some sort of prison, that much is obvious, but what is this facility called?"

"This is Night's prison, near Jeden City. It doesn't really have a name - everyone in Jeden City just calls it Night's prison." The Metagross shrugged. "For some reason, she's never named it."

That left me with another question, irritatingly. "Jeden City? I've never heard of it.".

The Metagross looked at me, incredulous. "You've never heard of Jeden City? The city right outside this prison? Seriously?! I mean, it's one of the largest cities in all of Naixe - and it's right outside the prison doors! How have you never heard of it?!"

Naixe? Wasn't that the strange land mass away from the rest of the Continents? The one with no cities or towns?

"I wasn't aware that Naixe had any cities, no," I admitted. "I had thought that there were only small farms. Last time I had checked, Naixe didn't have any civilizations or settlements."

"But then… how did you get here?"

There was no way to explain that without sounding like I hadn't just taken some drug. "Someone dumped me here," I tried to explain. "I… I can't really explain it."

The Metagross looked a little curious."Well, either way, you were wrong. Jeden City is only one of some large cities in Naixe, and I'm pretty sure we have something like a civilization here." A beaming smile stretched across the Metagross's face. "Once you visit it, you'll find it really fun!"

I nodded. That gave me something resembling a place - I knew how to navigate from Naixe back to the Grass Continent, albeit barely. It would be troublesome, but if I managed to get out of this prison, I would be able to return to Grovyle and the restoration efforts.

I faced the bars. "It's been nice meeting you... er, what was your name, again?" Then I remembered I hadn't introduced myself either. "My name is Dusknoir, just the species name."

"Oh! Well, my name is Pillar." Pillar introduced himself with exaggerated bowing. "Please, hold the applause."

"It's been nice meeting you, Pillar." I waved, ignoring the theatrics. "I'll return with a fighting force - I'll liberate everyone from this prison if it's the last thing I do."

With that, I pulled myself into the Ghost World - or at the very least, I tried to.

Somehow, a strange barrier blocked me from entering it. I tried bypassing it and going through it, but it would budge.

"Are you making any progress?" Pillar asked, oblivious.

I shook my head. "N-No.. how are they blocking me?" My concern multiplied, and I concentrated on my more… unnatural sense. "Pillar, I should be able to escape this prison, but my connection to the Spirit World is... weak. Fractured, even."

Pillar sighed, and for the first time, I saw a frown cross his face. "I'm going to have to say that's partially my fault, then. Sorry, I guess." Pillar gestured to himself. "I mean, just look at me."

I shook my head. "I... no, what? What about you?"

Pillar sighed. "It's because I'm Inverted, Dusknoir. That's why you can't escape."

"Inverted? What are you talking about?" Why wasn't Pillar giving me any straight answers?

Pillar opened his mouth, gaped a little bit, then snapped it shut. "You... do you know what the Inversion Phenomenon is? What Inverted Pokemon are?"

"No! I've never heard of such a thing!" There was something strange afoot.

Pillar studied me a little bit. "You've never... you've never heard of Inverted Pokemon? I thought they were everywhere."

I vehemently shook my head. "I've never come across the term. Please, if you would, explain."

Pillar nodded. "Uh, okay…" Pillar geared himself up and began to spin his tale.

"Once upon a time, I was your average, normal Beldum. I was as blue as they came, nothing special about me whatsoever. I wandered around, scrounging up all the metal I ever wanted. Occasionally, I would go to the various cities around Naixe and even talk a little bit."

Pillar's eyes grew misty. "It was a nice, fun life. A simple life, with plenty of action, adventure, and happiness."

"Then?" I pressed on. "What happened? For you to become like this?"

"I met Night, and she ruined my life." The joy left Pillar, and all that was left was apathy. "For some reason, she captured me... experimented on me." Pillar shivered. "She turned me... Inverted."

"What does that mean, exactly? What does 'Inverted' mean?"

"... I see." Pillar's explanation filled me with a sense of revulsion, and I could barely make any words out. "That… that's awful. Just… awful."

Pillar nodded. "I've only been able to resist the Miasma because the bars attract and absorb it. The Miasma reinforces the bars, stopping me from just attacking and destroying it. It prevents me from leaving, but it stops the Miasma from speaking to me."

Pillar sat down. "It's... it's pretty sad, I guess. But that's life for you. I try to look on the bright side of things - it doesn't pay to be miserable."

I didn't really know what to say - every word I tried to say remained choked in my throat. This Inversion...

I neared the bars of the cell and put my head close, trying to listen. Soon enough, I heard dark whispers laughing and shrieking at our plight. It gave me a strange sense of deja vu, too.

This Inversion... if what Pillar was saying was true...

... it reminds me too heavily of the corrupted, frozen future. These voices... they had echoed in that land, taunting me, weakening me. I hadn't noticed when they were gone, but now that they were back...

...Grovyle and I had to end this phenomenon. Had to stop the corruption of souls.

But first, I had to get out of this forsaken prison. I would do no good staying here.

Slamming my fists on the bars, I considered this predicament. This… Miasma… was enhancing and strengthening our prison. If I could find some sort of weakness, some sort of exploitable hole in the Miasma to punch through… I'd be able to leave.

"Pillar, what are the weaknesses of Miasma," I implored. "Please, I need to know."

Pillar put on a pondering look. "If the Miasma ever starts bothering Night, she uses a Fairy-type move like Misty Terrain or Dazzling Gleam to repel it." Pillar's eyes briefly glowed. Then he sighed. "I just attempted using some of my psychic abilities on it, but nothing happened."

"So it has the Dark-type strengths and weaknesses?" I noted. Then I had an epiphany. "I believe Metagross such as yourself know how to use Hammer-"

"Hammer Arm?" Pillar asked. Pillar brought up a glowing white limb. "Like this?"

"Yes… Why don't you use it?"

He shrugged. "I mean, sure, I guess." He went over to the bars and slammed his Hammer Arm into it. The white energy in his arms flew straight through the bars, not coming into contact with it. "It doesn't really do anything, though..."

"Hammer Arm doesn't work, then." I went over to it.

"Maybe there's another type hidden in the Miasma somewhere." Pillar responded, staring at the bars.

"What about Steel?"

"Good idea!" Pillar charged up a Metal Claw and slammed it into the bars. The Metal Claw clanged off the bars, leaving a mark. The mark soon disappeared.

"Steel-type moves work, then." Not enough to be very effective, though. "Let me try one of my own moves, then."

I charged a Shadow Punch slammed it into the bars. The shadowy energy flowed into the bars but dissipated after a short while. "It looks like the Miasma and Ghost-type energy are a little… compatible?" I noted, bemused.

"Compatible?" Pillar looked at me, a little confused. "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that there's Ghost-type energy in the Miasma as well," I explained. "The Ghost energy is protecting the bars from the Hammer Arm." I then frowned a little bit, turning to Pillar. "Ghost-type energy repels Bug-type energy too, so we can't use that either."

"So we're left with only Fairy-type moves, then?" Pillar asked, smile falling from his face.

"Yeah, too bad you don't have any of those." A familiar voice called out from behind me - a startlingly familiar voice. I turned to see Henka, the absolute monster.

"You…" I growled.

The Dragonite waved patronizingly and swaggered up to the bars of the cell, smirking at my anger. "How are you doing?"

I gripped the bars of the cell. "Have you come just to taunt us, then?" I spat out through gritted teeth. "Or have you come just to revel in your disgusting nature?"

Henka rolled his shoulders. "Nah… While I'd like to come later for a little chat, Night wants a talk with you personally. She and Nyx just had a little spat over what to do with you."

As he talked, Henka pantomimed what he was saying. "Nyx, the darling, wants to make you scream until your head pops off. Night, though, wants to use you herself, for some reason. Although, I _do_ have an idea of what she wants to make of you."

"M-Make of him…?" Pillar whispered. "You don't mean…!"

A sickening feeling settled in my stomach as Henka pulled out an obsidian key.

"She reckons you'd be better off Inverted and pliable, rather than just wasting away in a cell, useless to our cause." Henka unlocked the cell door. "Looks like you're going to have a little makeover, new friend."

Henka swung the cell door open. Before I could react, though, Pillar shot forward and slammed into Henka.

"D… Dusknoir! Escape, now!" Pillar cried, grabbing Henka and constricting him with his pillar-like legs. "Run!"

I rushed out of the cell doors, not wasting the opportunity Pillar gave to me. I passed the two wrestling titans and made my way into the hallway.

"Wheh-heh-heh!"

… I recognized that cackle.

I was painfully slammed to the ground. Pain coursing through my body, I turned my head with all my might to see a group of Inverted Sableye holding me down.

"Hello, Master Dusknoir. How nice of you to finally come back to us after so long~." The head Sableye teased. "We've missed you so much."

These… were these my loyal followers? While I was slightly enjoyed to see them, I was more confused than anything. Why were they holding me down? And what happened to them, to make them Inverted?

"Get… get off me!" I ordered, struggling in their hold.

The order didn't seem to register, for they only grinned and push harder.

"What… what are you doing?" My voice faltered, before rising again. "I am your master, and I order you to get off me!"

"You were their master, not are." Henka flashed me a grin. "Can't you figure that out, or are you really that slow?"

Henka glowed a startling silver in Pillar's grasp and started to change shape before shrinking. In a few seconds, Pillar was holding onto nothing.

"Can you see me? Can you see me?" Henka's voice, which was now tinny and altogether different, taunted. "Or are you dense _and_ blind?"

Pillar was scanning the room in a panic. "Wh… where are you?!" He fell on his behind. "Where did you go?!"

"The more appropriate question would be, you idiotic Metagross, what did I turn into?"

In another glow of light, a random spot on the wall grew into a pink blob. With a _Plop!_ , a Ditto appeared fully formed on the ground of the corridor.

The Ditto turned to face Pillar and me. "Care to recognize me?"

Pillar's eyes were wide with shock. "You're a Dit-"

"A Ditto, yes," Henka mocked. "While people never suspect a Dragonite, they somehow suspect a Ditto even less." Henka transformed into a Houndoom. "Their mistake, I guess."

Henka leaped forward and bit Pillar with a mouth full of fire. Pillar screamed, the sound echoing over my struggles. He thrashed and wrestled with Henka, trying to knock him off, but Henka held on tighter, his dark fire spreading all over Pillar.

The savage and mindless combat slowly came to a stop, though, as Pillar's movements ceased. Henka let him go and grew very still, pressing his ear to Pillar's body.

Henka's eyes narrowed "Peh. Just fainted, the oaf." He spat. "I might as well finish him off, you're practically useless to us now."

Henka's mouth wreathed in darkness, and he lunged for Pillar's leg. But before Henka could snap his mouth shut, however, Pillar's body was suddenly jerked away.

"Henka." A svelte voice called out. All of the Pokemon in the prison's cages fell silent. "Enough."

Henka grit his teeth, but then calmed down. "Of course, Madam Night." Henka turned to the Sableye that still had me pinned down. "Take him to the Chamber, now."

The leader of the Sableye huffed. "Fine. Hey, you three, knock him out."

Then everything went black again.

I woke up in what seemed like a research facility, on top of a white bedpan. Eyeballs floated around in formaldehyde-filled jars on high shelves as green lights in the ceiling cast an eerie glow over the objects of the room.

"Do you like the aesthetic?" Night called out from next to me. "They really add to the feel of the room. Make me feel like I'm doing something naughty, something truly forbidden."

I tried to pick myself up, so I could reorient myself and get to work smashing Night's face in with a well-deserved punch. But to my great irritation, I found my arms to be bound to the wall. My torso was locked to the bedpan with metal bands. All of my movement was constricted.

"Don't mind those, they're just to stop you from flailing around or escaping." There was a rustling as Night worked next to me. "Let's see now… Species #477, Dusknoir… Special Characteristics… From another time, previously known to operate Dimensional Holes…"

"Wh-What?!" I croaked. "How… how do you know all that?" Then it occurred to me. "The Sableye…"

"Yes, Dusknoir. Once we inverted them and turned them to our side, we obtained some valuable information." She waved her hands. "Not you - you're boring. Nothing interesting, nothing special. You're just a Dusknoir."

Despite my situation, I couldn't help but feel rather offended.

"No, it's that Sky. Precognition is always a boon, but _precise_ precognition like the Dimensional Scream? That's millions of times more valuable than the vague danger sense I have. The Corsola that just came in confirmed it."

The Dimensional Scream? In _her_ hands?

"He's in another time. Good luck trying to get to him when he isn't even here in this time." Sky and Naetle were in the past, presumably, since they would have no reason to return to our future after saving it from paralysis.

Night would have to go all the way to the time of the guilds to get at him, and while she knew of the Dimensional Holes, finding a practical way to the past was all but unheard of.

"He's not in the past, Dusknoir. He's in our time." Night's words struck an icy blow in my chest.

"Wh-what?!"

"Sky and his partner Naetle are in this time. They've time-traveled, fortunately." Night's easy answer crashed painfully on my ears. "All I had to do was confirm that the Naetle in the Jeden base was the time traveler. With the Corsola, it was easy."

Sky and Naetle were… in our time.

"We're on our way to finding him. But he's not why we're here today."

Night, a Gardevoir of all things, finally came into view with a clipboard in hand. After humming a bit, she put it down.

"Alright, now that the necessities are out of the way, let's get on with it." She stretched a little bit. "Thanks for standing so still. Your fishing for information hasn't gone unnoticed, but it has wasted what little escape time you had left."

My eye widened, and I began struggling again as I remembered exactly where I was.

"I do have an unfortunate habit of monologuing, but I try to use it, at any rate." She shook her head, then Teleported away, coming back a literal second later with a line of Inverted Pokemon.

"Remove the Suppressors."

The Inverted Pokemon each came up to Night and gave her what looked like a Shiny Stone.

"You see these, Dusknoir?" Night said as she walked across the line, collecting the Stones. "These are Shiny Stones, as you may know. Normally, they're just your average evolutionary item. They do have a very interesting effect on the Miasma, though."

As she took each Stone from the Inverted Pokemon, a dark mist began to permeate the air. I coughed, as the fumes were making me somewhat light-headed.

After collecting all the stones, Night Teleported away, returning without the stones. The Miasma was thick in the air, obscuring my sight.

"The Shiny Stones - or as we collectively call them, Suppressors - are able to weaken and suppress the Miasma's influence. We've bought many loyalties with it. Inverted Pokemon angry at their curse and willing to do anything to relieve it are easy recruits."

"We?" My futile struggles came to a stop. "What do you mean, 'we'?"

"HUMANITY, as my dad calls it. A little organization for revolution, with a hint of world domination." Her hands turned black. "You'll find out later. For now, stay still."

The Miasma coalesced and inspissated around Night's hands. With a quick motion, she slammed them down on my torso.

Then, _again_ , I felt an indescribable pain (that was occurring more often than not today). This time, though… I didn't have the refuge of fainting. Instead, what the Miasma did, what Night did… it drew me into my nightmares... my memories…

 _With a powerful push, the Sableye shove Grovyle into the Dimensional Hole. A leap later, they're in the distant future._

 _I smile at the members of the Guild and the inhabitants of Treasure Town. They cheer and stamp their feet as Grovyle's panicked face disappears into the Temporal Void. Naetle cheered the loudest of all, having personally battled the 'miscreant' himself._

 _Sky looked pensive, though. I wonder if he already suspected something. Either way, it was no real matter._

 _As long as he didn't act on it within the next few minutes, the battle was already one._

" _My friends!" I call out, a smile adorning my face. It takes all but a few seconds for the crowd to calm down. "My friends, the criminal is in the past! We have succeeded! We have won!"_

 _The crowd was whipped up into another frenzy. Oh, they were so, so naive._

 _Time to end this, while emotions are running high and their faith in me is at their strongest._

" _Unfortunately, my friends…" The crowd's enthusiasm - or should I say, happiness - took a dive. "I must follow them."_

 _There was a cacophony of sound and distress at this. They had forgotten that I too was of the future. Several guild members fell into tears, the normally reserved Chatot among them._

" _Truly, my friends… these were the greatest moments of my life. I wish, with all of my heart, that I could stay." I shook my head in faux-sadness. "I must say my farewells."_

 _I turned to the Guildmaster. "Wigglytuff, my dear friend…"_

 _Wigglytuff sniffled, his eyes watering as a small globule of snot hanging out of his nose._

 _I held back a sneer. "Never change." He nodded, and I turned to the other members of the guild._

" _You were among the most hospitable of Pokemon I have ever met". I bowed. "It was an honor to meet you."_

 _The Guild members started crying, with a few of them unable to look me in the eye in an attempt to preserve their dignity. Chatot attempted for a brave face, but the rivers falling down his cheeks told a different story._

" _Residents of Treasure Town…" They didn't really do anything, so I floundered for a split second to figure out what to say. "... the smiles never left your faces. This town… it feels like home." Blatant lies._

 _After a reaction much like the Guild's, I turned to the lake trio. "You three honorable warriors are among the strongest, kindest, and bravest_ _Pokémon_ _I have ever met." A little flattery never hurt anyone._

 _They smiled, yet said nothing. They too looked sorrowful at my parting. My actions had instilled trust, camaraderie, and hope within them. All nothing but lies._

 _I turned to the Dimensional Hole. "It is time for me to leave," I 'regrettably' said. I walked right up to the Dimensional Hole._

 _Now for the coup-de-gr_ _â_ _ce…_

" _Oh!" I said, turning back to the crowd. "Before I leave, there is one last thing I must say, to a certain few of my friends. Naetle, Sky, could you please come here for a second?"_

 _There was a bustling for a short few seconds, before the tear-stained Turtwig appeared, his amnesiac partner in tow._

 _I knelt down. "There is one last thing I wish to say to you. Come here so I may whisper it into your ear."_

 _They obediently came close._

" _You two were some of the greatest heroes I had ever met. Without your help, our world would be dead."_

 _Naetle, impossibly, began to tear up again. "Dusknoir… sir…"_

" _Our time together was grand. I wish it didn't have to continue."_

 _Naetle snorted. "I… Dusknoir, I…" Then he noticed what was wrong with what I said. "... I… what? 'You wish it didn't have to continue?'"_

 _I smirked. "It's too soon for farewells!" I seized the two Pokemon, and threw them into the whole, before diving in myself and closing the Dimensional Hole behind me._

 _I've won._

 _They've left…_

 _They've escaped the future. Grovyle, Naetle, and Sky received help from that blasted Celebi, who managed to avoid Lord Dialga's grasp yet again. Lord Dialga is displeased with me, and it's all I can do to calm him down._

" _My lord, my lord," I beg, prostrating myself before him. "My lord, I beg you, give me another chance. I will drag them here on their knees, screaming in agony."_

 _Lord Dialga doesn't look convinced._

" _Please, my lord, please believe in me," There was nothing else I could do, no way I could change his mind._

 _Lord Dialga remains silent._

 _Then, with a ripple of air, a tear in space-time appears before us. Through the rip lies a colorful land with an ominous feeling radiating from it. A land that I recognize._

" _The Hidden Land… Do you wish for me to catch them there, my lord? To lay an ambush?"_

 _Lord Dialga said nothing, as usual. Then, with a wink of light, he disappeared from existence, leaving me there with the portal._

 _I turned to my Sableye lieutenant. "Gather the forces," I ordered with a frigid glare. "We will bring them back here or die trying."_

" _Celebi!" Grovyle leaped forward. I stood behind him, patient, ever so patient. He still suspected nothing._

" _N-no!" Celebi's weak voice echoed across the icicle forest, glowing in Spiritomb's ghostly grip. "Grovyle, it's… it's a trap!"_

 _Grovyle, thankfully, still ran full tilt toward Spiritomb, who had been holding Celebi hostage. But that was to be expected - even if he had the time to comprehend Celebi's words, he would attempt to save her anyway._

 _Hero types are like that._

" _Hold on, Celebi!" Grovyle shouted. And finally, he was in range._

 _The icicle pillars shot out their spiritual shock. Four corners, four ropes of pure agony locking him to the ground._

" _What… what's… what's happening?!" Grovyle croaked out as he writhed on the ground._

" _I… I can go, right?" Spiritomb questioned. Spiritomb was a coward, which, rearing its ugly head, was a nuisance. That, though, was a strength in addition to being a weakness. It was what allowed me to control him._

" _No." I turned my cold voice on him. "If you give Celebi a split second, she'll take it to escape and turn the clock. Keep her here so that I may… dispose of her."_

 _Grovyle somehow collected his wits - a rather impressive feat, considering the situation he was in. "Dusknoir! What is the meaning of this?!"_

 _Choices, choices… we had already won, and it's not like they could do anything anymore. Gloating might even distract them long enough so that they will forget any escape attempts._

" _Grovyle, who is Lord Dialga's new henchman?" I asked him casually._

" _Dusknoir, save me!" Grovyle plead, barely avoiding screaming in agony. "I… I don't know!"_

 _Ugh… I'd have to spell it out for him, then. What an imbecile. "The new henchman, the one who will take control of the Sableye… that's you."_

" _I… what? I'm… the new henchman?" Then Grovyle began to catch on. "Dusknoir… what are you doing?!"_

" _I directed our journey to come here, Grovyle, for a single, special purpose. The electricity within these pillars is connected to the Ghost World, a world beyond life and time. It has an interesting property - the shock will rob you of your soul."_

 _Surely enough, I could see the life and will drain out of him as we spoke. It would take a while, though. It wasn't a particularly fast death._

" _I was going to use it for your torture and execution. But right now… your body is useful to me in other ways."_

" _Useful…?" Grovyle asked, still alive._

" _Corpse animation. A grisly and forbidden art… but one that I can use." I felt a delicious fear wafting from him. "Your face will delight Sky and Naetle. For you to return so soon… for you to betray them so soon…"_

" _N-no!" Grovyle cried out, struggling on the ground. "I… I'll stop you!" He could do nothing but flop around on the ground like a Magikarp._

" _There's no point, Grovyle. The shocks are locking your muscles - you won't get out of there any time soon, or at all."_

 _Slowly the struggles stopped. But I could tell his spirit remained. "H… how? There was… no opportunity for you to organize this. I was with you the whole ti-" He realized the truth. "No… you woke up first… you… that's why the Sableye were there, but didn't do anything."_

 _I chuckled. "Finally catching on, are you?"_

 _But something was wrong with the situation. Grovyle should have died long ago, or at the very least turned into a vegetable. He still struggled, still fought…_

 _He still hoped._

 _I balled my hands into fists. "Do you know how I utterly despise you, Grovyle? You and your… your drive… your righteousness… your shining hope!" I began spitting, not caring that I had no mouth. "It drives me insane! To know that you still persevere."_

 _Then deranged laughter flowed from my nonexistent lips. "But look at you now! Dying on the ground before me. And you will have no respite in the Ghost World, for your spirit will be gone! Soon, I will take everything you cherished!"_

 _Celebi screamed and shrieked at me in Spiritomb's grip. "N-No! Dusknoir, you awful coward!"_

 _I wiped away malicious tears. "And you know… " I hiccuped. "You know what's the best part? You lost… you're dying because you trusted me!"_

"ARRGHHH!"

An insane pain rocked through me, bolting awake. I struggled and flopped on the bedpan Night had bound me too.

Night patted me on my shoulder, mocking me. "It's okay, it's okay…" A consoling grin, a dark facade appeared on her face. "It's okay now… it's over."

A dark fire lanced through me, eating away at me. A primal rage filled my blood, my ghostly blood, begging me to smash Night's face into the ground and force her to beg for the mercy she would never receive. I would tear her to pieces, then go to the Ghost World and push agony onto her again, and again, _and again_!

"It looks like the Inversion was a success." Night yawned. "Oh, dear… I'm rather tired."

I could give less than a -

"But, unfortunately, I still have to deal with you." She sighed, then set up a Misty Terrain. Strangely enough, my chest began to relax, as if a balloon that had been nearly ready to pop in it shrank.

Night then walked over to me and started to charge a Shadow Ball in her hands. "So, let me tell you something interesting, Dusknoir. When I transfer Miasma into Pokemon, it allows me to also see what the Miasma shows them."

Night chuckled. "You're not that much of a hero, Dusknoir. You're not one at all. You tricked everyone and were willing to use people's hearts to your benefit. You melted a soul."

"I'm rather surprised, Dusknoir - you seemed like such a paragon of justice. But instead, you did the exact same things I'm doing. Serving your own master, doing whatever it takes to please him… I understand that completely"

She pressed the Shadow Ball into me, eliciting a cry of pain. "Too bad you served the wrong master until now. I'm going to give you plenty of pain for the Miasma, our strongest tool, to work with. My sister is busy, and I have nothing else to do."

"Don't worry, Dusknoir." A cry of pain escaped me as the pink mist illuminated Night's serene face. "It'll be over… eventually."

Time travel… again.

Let's just say I was over and through with this business. Do you know what sucks? Having to accustom yourself to a new culture and way of life - but more than that, a new time. You know how often I have to do it?

Too often.

*sigh*

Look, it's nothing personal. I've just… It's been a long day. A really long, really eventful, day.

What's that? You've been wondering where I've been all this time?

Heh, well…

(Sky)

*BOOM*

"Gazzuwhat?!" I bolt up. Lightning struck the tree next to me as torrents of globular raindrops poured down on me.

I blinked. This… was not Sharpedo Bluff.

I was at the top of a large hill with a steaming stump. A hurricane splattered around me - which wasn't that bad, honestly - but the lightning strikes reminded me of the awful weakness of mine.

That reminds me - in a thunderstorm, should probably get off the top of the hill.

After waddling my way to the bottom of the hill and away from the highest point, I couldn't help but wonder exactly where I was.

Last I remember was the night before we were going to go defeat Darkrai. We stocked up on Reviver Seeds, tested Cresselia's strength (lacking, but we took what we could get). I fell asleep, and then…

I wake up in some weird hilly area.

I shook some of the water off of me. I had no bag, no map, and no Naetle.

I tapped the side of a tree on the side of the hill. If I was lucky, I'd get some signal from the Dimensional Scream on where to go. A literally sickening tool, but drastic times call for drastic measures.

As my telltale nausea started up again, I closed my eyes. With a flash…

" _... Sharfa, wait up!" A panting Electabuzz leaned on the side of the tree, having caught up to the anxious Fraxure. "Are you sure this is the best option?"_

 _Sharfa stared at the Electabuzz. "Tek, do you understand what's happening? They're recruiting for the army! We're finally fighting against those awful… demons! They'll need everyone to fight, Tek." Sharfa punched the tree in excitement. "This is our chance to secure our future! Onwards, Tek, to Siemna Town!" Sharfa made a mad dash to the north, almost forgetting entirely about Tek._

 _Tek panicked. "Sharfa, wait up!" He too ran to the north._

… I reopened my eyes.

"Okay… to Siemna Town!" With that, I shot northward. I had to get back to Treasure Town so that Naetle and I could defeat Darkrai.

Ten minutes later, and I found myself wheezing on the ground. "Wh… why does it hurt so much to… to run?" I asked myself. Naetle and I had run for far longer periods than this - I shouldn't be so exhausted.

I shook my head, though, and forged onward. Once we dealt with Darkrai, I'd have Chimecho see what was wrong with me. By the time I saw the skyline of the town, I was nearly dead on my feet. The miraculous sight galvanized me, though, and I managed to make my way to the gates.

Siemna Town was quaint, for lack of a better word. There were cobbled streets and somewhat large buildings. To be frank, it was leagues beyond anything I had seen in the Pokemon world before, but I somehow know they're smaller than any human-made building.

I walked around town, wondering where to go from here. Pokemon passed by me without much care or fancy, but there was a dark weight permeating the atmosphere. For some reason, it made me feel rather cold and alone.

It wasn't my concern, though. I stopped a Pachirisu who was carrying a basket of berries. "Excuse me, could you give me directions to Treasure Town?"

"Treasure Town?" The Pachirisu looked curious. "I don't think I've heard of it before." The Pachirisu flushed with embarrassment. "Er… but there are maps in the library! It's on Colbur Lane, you can't miss it!"

She didn't know about Treasure Town? It was the biggest settlement around - how could she not hear of it?

But she had given me good advice as to where to go next. "Thank you! You've been such a big help!"

The Pachirisu blushed. "It's no problem," she demurred. "It's our duty to help each other, as fellow Pokemon." Nonetheless, she looked rather pleased with my praise - she probably wasn't appreciated very often, then.

As I turned to leave, the Pachirisu suddenly interrupted me, looking nervous. "Oh, uh, by the way, what's your name?"

"My name is Sky."

The Pachirisu looked rather pensive. "Sky? That name sounds familiar to me." She shrugged. "A-anyway, hopefully, I'll see you around!" She hopped off with a spring in her step.

After getting some directions to Colbur Lane, I headed off. Within minutes, I had arrived at the library, a somewhat larger white building. I stepped inside, determined to get going.

Ten minutes later, I was ready to tear my feathers out. How were there no records of Treasure Town? There were only maps of 'Naixe', and none of the continent Treasure Town was in.

I wasn't anywhere near Treasure Town, which explains why the Pachirisu didn't know anything about it. It also told me I was beyond lost.

I sat down. I didn't have any leads anymore… time to make some.

I grabbed the book of maps I was holding and hoped beyond hope that the Dimensional Scream would come through for me again.

As the nausea started, I closed my eyes. With another flash…

" _Gum! Gum!" A Teddiursa dragged an Ursaring across the floor of the library as she kept on shouting a name. "Gum, come look at this. It's the book I've been looking for!"_

 _Gum took the book in his paws and smiled. "The Tales of Eonia? Hime, this book is… how old? Wouldn't you want me to read you an easier book?"_

 _Hime stamped her feet. "No, no, no! This book has the prettiest pictures and the fanciest-looking words. I want you to read it to me!"_

 _Gum sighed. "Fine… it's a book of fables, so you'll probably enjoy it anyway." He opened it up. "How about… this. The tale of the Temporal Grovyle and the Lustrous Celebi."_

" _Read it, read it!"_

" _Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, there was a land frozen in time…_

… I reopened my eyes.

I ran to the bookshelf where I saw the two bear Pokemon stand and scoured the bookshelves frantically for that book. Within ten minutes of searching, I had found it - a tattered copy of The Tales of Eonia.

I opened it up with trembling flippers. I was nervous, but… why?

I opened it up to the page the two bear pokemon were looking at.

 _The Temporal Grovyle and the Lustrous Celebi_

The tale told of a Grovyle who had befriended a Celebi. The two of them time-traveled to save time itself, while being hounded at every step by an awful trickster ghost. The ghost nearly beat them, but Grovyle sacrificed himself to let Celebi through to Temporal Tower, allowing time to be restored.

It was… accurate? I mean, they kept some facts, but Celebi only helped in the future - she didn't come back with us. In the past, Grovyle, Naetle, and I were on our own.

And they don't mention _us_ …

Naetle and I have been erased from the fable entirely, Celebi taking our place. I feel vaguely offended for some reason.

I shut the book. One thing was clear.

The book said that all of this happened long, long ago. Millennia, even.

Either this book was wrong, or I've time-traveled again. For the… fourth time?

I sighed. This was going to be a problem. On one hand, this meant that Darkrai didn't win - the world is clearly still in one piece. On the other hand… I have no idea what to do. I don't know if Naetle is here in this time with me, I don't know how to get back - heck, I don't even know where I am!

… should I use the Dimensional Scream again-

My stomach shook at the thought, and I shivered lightly. Ugh… there was never a need to use the Dimensional Scream often enough for something like this to happen. Of _course,_ it has to act up now.

I'm back at square one, though.

"What am I going to do from here…?" I muse.

Out of nowhere, a baritone knocks me to the floor. "You're going to come with us." Before I gather my wits, I feel my arms and legs being bound together by a strong rope - or were they vines?

"You hurt my sister!" A tiny voice howled while pelting me with electric shocks. "You lied to her, you tricked her, you manipulated her! I'll make you pay!"

"Wha-What?" I could only blabber. "What are you talking about?"

"It's none of your business anymore, _Sky_. You'll pay for your crimes soon enough. In fact, one very special lady is rather interested in you."

(Glacia)

Why?

Just… Why?

I wearily pull my eyelids open, the ache of the floor begging me to the move. I find bars in front of me, with Pokemon continuously moaning 'Night'.

I'm in her prison - Night's prison.

"Hi…" A voice echoes behind me, before its owner - a Piplup - enters my vision. The Piplup looks weary, the down on his belly looking scruffy and bedraggled. Tiny bags are under his eyes, and he slumps with a messy posture.

But those were superfluous when it came to his eyes. The hollow cavities filled my heart with dread - _no one_ should have such a barren soul.

I gulped. "Er… hi." My mouth had eaten dirt, as I still laid on the floor.

I picked myself up and coughed out the dirt. "Sorry about that," I apologized. "My name is Glacia. Who are you?"

I waited for a response, and around half a minute later it came. "Sky… I think."

"Sky?!" This was Sky? From what Naetle told me, Sky had a powerful presence that couldn't be missed, lighting up a room with his smile and - okay, maybe Naetle was a bit biased.

But this Sky? He was dying in front of me.

"Are you… do you know Naetle?" I queried, wondering whether this Sky was the one Naetle knew, or maybe another one was caught in the hunt for the real Sky. I prayed to Arceus almighty that it was the case.

"Na… Naetle?" A brief flash of recognition flashed in his eyes. "I think… he's a… he's a…" His eyes snapped open. "A Turtwig, right? He's my… he's my…" Gibberish spilled from his mouth - or at least, I think it was. I don't think phleghithibla is an actual word, several millennia in the past or not.

But that was enough for me. "You… you're Sky!" A deranged laugh escaped from me. He had clearly been in here for weeks, if not months, and had suffered because of it.

But my elation was darkened by the realization that Night had found him before we could.

"Are you… are you loyal to Night?"

A defeated look was the response I received.

But it wasn't the response I was going to keep.

I grabbed Sky by his shoulders. "Night is your enemy. She was the one who put you here. She is the one that put you through all of this pain. She wants to hurt everyone. You can't let her win, Sky." Somehow, I knew what to say.

Night had been hurting Sky, breaking his resolve and morale. In front of me was a shadow of a Pokemon, torn from dreams of innocence. I had to restore those dreams.

"Look into my eyes, Sky." Obediently, his eyes traveled. "Night is your enemy. Naetle and I - we're your friends!" Well, I wasn't yet, but I was going to try to be!

"I… friends?" Sky blubbered. "I do… I don't have friends?"

What did Night do to him?

But I had an idea. "Use the Dimensional Scream, Sky. Look into the past and tell me that Naetle is a friend."

For a few seconds, nothing happened. Then a pained and nauseous look entered Sky's face. Strangely enough, I felt sick myself.

With a flash of light and a blinding headache, my vision swam out of focus.

 _Pearled bubbles flew in the air, wafting from the claws of Krabby. A shimmering sunset illuminated a beach, where two Pokemon stood._

" _Will you… will you form an exploration team with me?" A small Turtwig asked, curling on itself. "I… I felt brave today. For the first time in… I don't know how long." The Turtwig took a deep breath. "It was… I want to feel that again. That bravery. I want to…"_

 _The Turtwig fell to the ground. "Please! Join an exploration team with me!"_

 _Seconds ticked past. The Pokemon they were talking looked pensive._

 _Then…_

" _Sure!" A Piplup, a radiant smile beaming from his beak, agreed to the Turtwig. "Let's become exploration team members."_

" _T-together?"_

" _Together."_

My vision swam back into focus. That…

That was the Dimensional Scream. That was Naetle and Sky, then. Was that… was that when they met?

But Sky then tore me from my thoughts. A crazed look entered his eyes, a strange hunger.

"A-again!" He said, nearly begging. "That… that was Naetle! My… he's my friend!"

He grabbed on to me, and I nodded.

My vision swam out of focus again.

 _A pulsing tide drew and withdrew, creating a flowing rhythm. An imperceptible buzz filled the air, providing a beautiful backdrop. In the middle of a lake, a possie of Illumise and Volbeat danced, reflecting a glimmer of light onto the lake._

 _In the center laid an orb of soft light. Within the dead center of the orb itself was a spinning artifact, a spiraling metal gear. Around it, the world was sharper, clearer._

 _On top of the cliff was a group of people. A Turtwig gasped. "It… it's beautiful…" He could only say. Assent came from the crowd of Pokemon behind him._

 _Then a Wigglytuff stepped forward and spoke to a strange floating Pokemon. "So Sorry! To have Disturbed You! Had a Fantastic Time! Friend! Friend! Friend!"_

 _The floating Pokemon spoke with amusement. "I shall not take away your memories of this place. You have earned my trust. But I must ask that you keep this place a secret."_

 _The Wigglytuff nodded. "Surely! Thank you! We all know what we need to do! You know, another Time Gear has been stolen! This one must stay safe! We won't ever say a word about this place! I swear it in the name of Wigglytuff's Guild!_

That was… that was Wigglytuff! The legendary Wigglytuff!

I had seen him with my own eyes! I can't believe it!

"That was… Fogbound Lake. That was where Naetle and I found the first Time Gear. where we made… that memory." Sky murmured.

Then he snapped his eyes to me. "One last time."

After grabbing onto me, we fell back into the straits of time.

 _The dusk was shining with beautiful light. Bubbles floated in the air, popping every now and again on the crags of the cliffs._

 _On the beach, a Turtwig sobbed at the feet of a confused Bidoof. The Turtwig tried to pick himself up but failed time and time again._

" _S-Sky… Sky!" The Turtwig bawled, hiccuping slightly. "I… Wah!" Tears streamed down his face as his legs splayed on the beach._

 _Then, curiously, a mote of light flew from the sand a few meters away. It was followed by another, then another, and on and on until…_

 _A Piplup stepped out of the shower of light and fixed his eyes on the Turtwig._

 _The Turtwig, for some indescribable reason, turned around, finding the energy deep within his soul._

" _Sky…?" Then the Turtwig walked forward, as if in a dream. "S… Sky?!"_

 _The two ran at each other at blinding speeds, before colliding and collapsing at each other's feet._

" _Sky!" The Turtwig repeated, but with a reunioning joy. "I… I missed you…"_

"... Naetle…" Sky teared up and collapsed into himself. "I'll… I'll come back."

I stood up straighter. "Do you understand what I mean, Sky. Night is the one that forced you apart. He's waiting for you, Sky. You can't give up."

Sky nodded. "Th… Thank you… Glacia." A smile cracked itself onto Sky's face. "Thank you…"

"Yes, thank you, _princess_." A strangely familiar voice called out. Sky froze in place, and I turned to see who it was…

...Henka.

The Ditto-transformed Dragonite grinned at me, smug. "Oh, this takes me back so many months, princess. But you are where you need to be, Glacia - at my feet, trapped and despairing." Laughter began to roll up his spine. "It's a true _pleasure_."

"What are you doing here?!" I roared, falling into a battle stance.

"I work here, princess. Night and HUMANITY are my prime employers, they're walking, talking money-bags." Henka smirked. "But that's besides the point. Right now, Night wants the both of you."

Henka shifted into a Roserade. "Goodnight, princess." Shaking his arms, Henka launched Sleep Powder into the cell.

The Sleep Powder coated every surface, so there was nothing I could do. I desperately fathered some energy for a Shadow Ball, but it was useless - within seconds, the powder was in my system, and I fell into a peaceful slumber alongside Sky.

I woke up in the Dream Worl-

NOPE!

NUH-UH!

NO WAY!

NOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPE!

NOT COMING HERE AGAIN ANYTIME SOON!

I smashed my head on the floor of the Dream World to knock me back into reality.

"... took you long enough to come to," Night's voice rang out. "But now we can get to business."

I was trapped in some sterile room with awful lighting. I couldn't help but compare this to an illustration of Dr. Lucky's laboratory in The Strange Case of Dr. Lucky and Mr. Tomb. Chained next to me was Sky, who was struggling for his life.

Night faced both of us, smiling. "You know, you two have been rather annoying, given the problems you've handed me on a silver platter. Sky, you've been a pain to locate and even harder to turn. Glacia, you've contributed nothing to our cause but have done more than enough to hamper it."

"Let's fix that."

A line of Inverted Pokemon came in. "First, let's work on Glacia. You've known things you aren't supposed to know - but more than that, you've shown yourself to both empower and _destroy_ Miasma. Such a talent can't go to wast-"

"I'll never help you!" I shouted at the top of my lungs. "You're a monster!"

"Yes, quite," Night replied, irritated. "But I'm a monster with control. Either way, I'll need your cooperation. You can use the Miasma, though, to protect yourself from advanced Hypnosis. I'm under no illusions that method will produce any results."

Night's hands were then surrounded by Miasma. "So, let's get that under my advantage, then."

"Hah! Y-yeah, right! I can destroy Miasma - you can't touch me!"

"That's not necessarily true, though," Night smiled. "Tell me, how do you think Catal obtained Miasma for the tournament?"

"The tourna-" Oh… you've got to be kidding me. "That was your doing?!"

"Yes, Glacia. Do keep up, please." Night sighed. "You can't destroy Miasma if it's in your own body, can you?"

"Y-Yes, I can!" The room was silent - my lie was pointless.

"... as I was saying, you can't purify your own body of the Miasma - and we have ways of making you comply." The line of Inverted Pokemon stepped forward. "Prepare for Inversion - hand me your Suppressors."

As each of the Pokemon handed some strange shining stones to Night, I closed my eyes to concentrate. ' _Think, think! How can I… How can I escape?_ " No answers came to me, though - and as the Pokemon handed those shining stones to Night, Miasma flowed out, clouding my thoughts even more.

"Stop!" Sky, who had been silent before now, shouted. "I… I'm the one you really want, right? You want the Dimensional Scream, right?" His eyes were pleading. "I… Don't touch her! I'll do what you tell me to do!"

Night scoffed. "Really? As far as I know, you'll lie and trick me. No, I'll figure out how to control you later." The Miasma thickened around Night's hands. "Continue the Inversion."

"Inv… invert me!" Sky shouted at last, looking panicked. "I won't allow you to hurt her. If you want to control someone, control me! Don't… don't invert her!"

Night turned to Sky. "Are you offering to be inverted in her place?" She questioned, sounding bemused. "Here I was thinking such heroic sacrifices only occurred in stories."

Sky shook his head. "I'm... I'm serious. She did nothing wrong - she doesn't deserve to be turned like this!"

Night let out a deceptively airy giggle. "Sky, there's nothing you could offer me that I can't get from you later. You hold no leverage - so still your tongue."

She turned to me one last time, but Sky hadn't finished. "I... please!"

Then something strange happened - Night smiled. It was only for a split second, but a devious grin marred Night's face.

"Ugh... fine." Night capitulated, rolling her eyes, the grin vanishing from her face as soon as it arrived. "I'll invert you instead if only to stop you from being so annoying." She turned to Sky and raised her Miasma-enveloped arms. "If I feel a single drop of resistance, I'll turn around and invert Glacia on the spot."

Sky grudgingly nodded, eyes closed and awaiting his fate.

Something was definitely wrong with this scenario - Night had unmistakably looked happy at what Sky had said, judging by that grin… so what was with the reluctance.

Then the Miasma traveled from Night to Sky, and everything made sense.

"Sky, you have to resist!" I shouted at the top of my lungs, jolting Night. "It's a trap!"

"Wh-what?" Sky's distant-sounding voice rang out.

"She's using me as leverage! She's trying to invert you!" I pled. "Sky, you have to resist it!"

But my words weren't reaching him. Night's Miasma was thick in the air, coursing and coiling in and out of Sky's muscles. Sky's beak was turning a vibrant indigo, his crown a deep mahogany. As his jewel-like eyes turned vomit-orange, I tried to think as hard as I could.

Everytime I tried to concentrate, though, I was plagued by awful headaches. The Miasma in the air was taunting me, begging me to give in to the darkness. It made it impossible to focus - no wonder Sky couldn't listen to me.

' _Say the name…'_ The Miasma whispered. ' _Awaken my master… '_

Yeah, right. I've said - and even thought - that name too many times already, and it's only ever helped me once. And even then, it was just exchanging one devil for the other. "I'll die before I ever say Ahriman again-"

A painful chill arced across my back as I hissed. I cursed my wandering thoughts as the Miasma began to orbit around my coloring body. Everytime I underwent the Inversion process, it went faster and faster - the name was having a stronger effect the more Miasma I emitted… actually, I was pulling it into me now!

My eyes widened as the orbit began to pull some of the Miasma from Night's hand and from within Sky.

"What…?" Night remarked, bemused. Then a look of shock appeared on her face, and Night subtly panicked. "Stop that this instant!"

In a frightening flash, the answer came to me.

My Inversion attracted the Miasma in the room. The threat of me being Inverted was Night's leverage over Sky. And, if I was judging Night's expression correctly… Night didn't want me Inverted yet.

So that was the only thing I could do to save Sky.

' _Sacrifice_ everything'.

I sighed.

In _the end_ , there was _no real_ choice, was there?

"Ahriman… Ahriman… Ahriman…" The chill electrified me as the Miasma danced in my changing body. Like _an obedient pet, it vacated Sky's body_ , restoring Sky's clarity.

As the process went on, I could vaguely hear Sky's frantic shouting _an_ d Night's attempts to halt _the proce_ ss with Misty Terrain and other Fairy-type moves. But _the Miasma ignored Night, not being denied her flesh the third time around_.

For the third or fourth time today, I _fell unconscious._

 _And the Miasma rejoiced._

I stared, horrified, as the rest of Glacia's fur turned a dull azure, her cream ruff turning navy. She convulsed on the ground, mouth open in a silent scream, as Night threatened to pull her hair out.

"You… What have you done?!" Night shrieked, losing all sense of composure.

Then Glacia snapped her colorless eyes open - and an ominous chill crawled up my spine.

"I'm just waking up…" A cool voice echoed. The Eevee stood up - for it could no longer be called Glacia - as Miasma coiled around their feet like a content cat. "Is that a problem, Night? Sky?"

"Y-yes!" Night sputtered, a primal fear awakening in her eyes. "W-what are you?!"

The Eevee raised its eyebrows. "I'm a part of Glacia, Night, and I have all the answers you want." Then the Eevee sported a small smile as an explosion went off somewhere else in the facility. "Oh... it seems my old friends are here."

The Eevee let out a chuckle. "Let's pay them a visit."


	16. 16 - An Infiltration of a Prison

(Koga)

Alice was pacing back and forth. She had been doing this for the past ten minutes; her patience had run out fairly quickly.

"I don't get it, Koga!" she finally bellowed at me. I jerked backward in slight surprise as she ranted at me. "Why did she run off - and where is she?"

"I'm more concerned about why she even attacked you in the first place. Why was that, exactly?"

Alice shook her head. "I don't know, okay?! The past two hours have been crazy!" She took a deep breath. "Look… remember what I said happened last night?"

"Vaguely. You said something about a Celebi appearing, traveling back in time, and something about a conspiracy?" He and Myga shared a good laugh over that one.

"Yeah - when I said I didn't believe them about the conspiracy, Glacia turned into a psychopath!" Alice shivered a little bit. It was strange, seeing the paramount of fearlessness quiver before me. "Seriously! What _happened_ to her?!"

I looked out into the forest. "We'll have to figure that out later. When are the others coming back?"

"Any minute now." That was the plan, anyway. I scanned the forest line one more time, just to be sure. Then a bush started rustling, and a familiar Turtwig popped out of the greenery, followed by the familiar Inverted Larvesta and Litwick.

"Tom, Merla, I'm sure we'll find her," Naetle consoled. Both Merla and Tom looked to be on the verge of tears, Merla shaking heavily. "Look, she's just a little lost. Once we find her, everything will be okay."

The two didn't seem to notice Naetle's solace. They muttered to themselves, to the exclusivity of everyone around them.

"Look, guys," All four pairs of eyes were on me. "What could have _honestly_ happened to her? There's nothing out there she can't handle." I sat down next to the two quivering near-wrecks. "Merla, Tom, you believe in Glacia's strength, right?" Tentative nods.

"They'll be alright, don't worry."

They ignored me - just as they did to Naetle. I sighed - at this point, I'll consider them inconsolable.

I turned to Naetle. "Do you know when the other groups are coming back?"

"No, we didn't cross paths with them."

Drats. What are we going to do from here? Half of our teams are missing, and the unit we're in is about to leave any minute now. This… it's not the worst case scenario, but it's getting uncomfortably close.

I sighed, closing my eyes. It would sharpen my senses slightly not that it would help much… Vinia?

I snap my head to the side of the little space we were occupying. Vinia was tearing her way through the brambles and briars of a nearby thicket, cursing slightly as she plowed on.

"Vinia?" I half-whispered, as the rest of our entourage turned to look at what I was pointing at. "What happened?!"

Her frantic eyes locked onto mine. "It's… Glacia's been kidnapped!"

I could see the life drain out of Team Ness's face. Two-thirds of them, actually. One of them changed differently.

"Who did it?" Tom's resolved voice, morphing from a frightened brat's, cut through the air. "Who hurt you? Who hurt Glacia?!"

Tom's face was unchallenging as he locked eyes with Vinia, yet a small pressure settled on the area.

"... Night. She took her away. I tried to stop her, but…" Vinia's voice trailed off, looking at the look on Tom's stony face. "Tom?"

"... you know what, I'm sick of this! Sick of you!" Alice butted in. Her face was filled with silent rage, one that I rarely had the misfortune of seeing. "Are you even comprehending what you're saying? Hearing it from the horse's mouth, it sounds even more ridiculous than when I heard it from Glacia!"

"But it's the truth!" Vinia interjected. "I'm her daughter - I've seen what awful things she's done. Night's taken Glacia and we have to go save her!"

Alice was silent - but the rage grew darker. "You know, Vinia, I've met your mother a few times before now. I'm a rather good judge of character, so I'll tell you this - Night is nothing like you say she is."

"You have to listen to me! Night's taken her, and she's taken control of Myg-"

"Vinia! Do you know who I am?"

Vinia trailed off "... you're Alice? The leader of Team Zelda?"

"Damn straight!" Alice screamed. "Do you know how much my team means to me, snake?! When Team Zelda laughs, I howl! When Team Zelda cries, I weep! When Team Zelda's at her limit, do you know what I do? I push us harder than we were ever pushed before!

"So when I see someone like _you_ … someone who leads their friends in twelve hundred different directions at once, someone who lies at the drop of a hat because of some grudge or whatever, someone who doesn't care what grows from their chaos… I can't stand it!" Several Shadows Balls materialized in Alice's grasp.

"Alice!" I shouted, preparing a few small Dark Pulses in case things got a little dicey. Who knows what could happen when she's in a protective rage-mode like this? "Calm down! We don't have to fig-"

"SO WHERE IS SHE?!" Alice roared, cutting through my Dark Pulses with dense Shadow Balls. Vinia immediately started a ballet of Teleportation, running for her life. "WHERE IS GLACIA?!"

At this point, I stopped trying to stop her. Vinia was going to be eviscerated, and there was nothing anyone could do to stop Alice when she was on her warpath.

Team Ness and I watched as the tense battle between the two female Amorphians (those of the Amorphous Egg Group). Vinia was putting up a good fight, surprisingly - she was already lasting over ten seconds longer than the previous fool who had incurred Alice's wrath.

Unfortunately, the fight drew to a close. One of Alice's near-ubiquitous Shadow Balls clipped Vinia's side - and with the psychic disruption that provided, Vinia was rendered virtually helpless against Alice.

"Ten seconds, Vinia." Ten Will-O-Wisps whisked into existence. "The truth, or injury. Your choice…"

One by one, the Wisps snuffed themselves out. Alice's face grew harder as Vinia floundered about, telling Alice how what she was saying is 'the truth, she's fooling you!'.

Seven… six…

Team Ness grew more distraught at what was happening to their old friend. Naetle was floundering as Tom stood rock still.

Four… three…

… could I stop her? I had dual type advantages, but… was that enough to combat someone who had been training for decades? Someone like Alice?

Should I stop her?

One…

"Time's up." A Shadow Ball popped into Alice's hand. "If you won't tell us… I'll force the truth out of you."

Whatever either of them was about to say next, though, was duly interrupted by a black string near-instantly wrapping itself around Vinia's body. With a sharp yank, Vinia flew out from Alice's grasp and landed squarely next to Team Ness,

Merla shot a piercing glare at Alice. " _Sorry_ , but I don't want you roughing up our friend."

Alice turned to Merla, a contrite look on her face. "You know Merla, I thought you were smarter than that. I'm dumber than a bag of rocks, but even I know what she said was utter-"

"I don't care. Merla sharp words managed to close the roof of Alice's mouth. "I don't care what you have to say, _Alice_." Merla's silver tongue spit acid. "My friend is in trouble, and you're adding to it."

I began to sweat slightly as a cold wind blew through the surrounding area.

"If there's even a sliver of a chance that Glacia's been kidnapped, that Glacia is in the hands of a rotten soul - then there is no choice." Merla turned to Vinia. "Get ready, we're leaving now!"

"Hold it" Imprisoned by the move of the same name, the two females were helpless as Alice drew near. "You two aren't going anywhere!"

Then the Imprisonment was shattered.

"Alice, I'm sorry." Naetle turned to look at Alice, a Bite fading from his mouth. "But I'm with these two. Any chance, no matter how small… for Glacia, we have to risk it."

Then all three were nailed to the ground with another Imprison.

"You know… I'm getting… real sick of this." Alice huffed, the drain finally showing on her face. "But none of you are getting out until we find out what's actually going on!"

Then it was shattered again.

"Tom… not you too." Alice's voice finally failed her. "I… please…"

"Alice… please, I'm begging you. Forgive us." Tom walked over to the rest of his insane bunch. "Let's go."

And before we could react, they were gone.

* * *

"Alice, you're going to WHAT?!"

"You heard me, Koga. I'm going to find Heila - she owes me a favor - and I'm going to take them back by force." Alice burned through the departing crowd, bumping into surprised Venturers as she stormed. "You know, I didn't think Tom was that stupid. He's bright everywhere else, but _no_ , when his friend says something, he _automatically believes them_! Heck, He's a Ghost Type - we're not SUPPOSED to have friends!"

"Alice, you're rambling-"

"And that girl! _That girl!_ " Alice raged. "She's been nothing but a pest! Maybe she has a thing for Tom, I don't know! The point is, she leads him around on a leash. Night this, and Night that! Night is nothing but a kind Venturer, just like the rest of us, and she keeps dangerous criminals locked up. But that damn Ralts girl - that _Vinia_ \- she intends to muddy Night's name!"

"But she's her daughter. Why would she-"

"Why would she, indeed, Koga?" Alice turned around and stared at me. "We don't know - she might be having a little temper tantrum, she might be having a little fight with her mother, _I don't know_! What I _do_ know is that what she's claiming is ridiculous and that she's got Tom and the rest of Team Ness hooked on her damned fabrication!"

"So you're going to stop them?"

" _Yes_." Alice turned to me exasperated. "Koga, why are you so slow today?"

"Alice," I diverted. "You're acting rashly-"

"I'M acting rashly?! ME?!" Alice stopped dead in her tracked and stared at me. "They go to attack a _prison_ , and I'M acting rashly?!"

I kept my mouth shut.

Alice continued to stare at me, before shaking her head. "Everyone's acting crazy today. It's one after the other with you guys." She looked me in the eyes. "Koga, tell me honestly. Will you help me go and get Team Ness back from the prison before they wreck their entire future?"

When she put it that way…

"Yeah. I'll help you." I agreed.

"Then we should go as soon as possible." Alice decreed, before marching onward. "It'll be a little hard, but if we're fast they might not get caught."

As we rushed onward, I couldn't help but feel some strange sort of regret. I couldn't place my finger on it, but something about what Alice said was wrong…

… no, I can place my finger on it easily.

Vinia wasn't lying - or at the very least, if she was lying, she didn't know that she was. She honestly, truly, believed she was telling the truth. Alice is a Ghost Type, so she's naturally good at fabricating lies, but she personally isn't too great at discerning them (the Bellossom cupcake incident instantly comes to mind). I'm much better than she is in that sort of thing.

And from what I can tell, Vinia genuinely was telling what she thought was the truth - and Team Ness must hold some faith in her.

… but no, they can't be right. Vinia must be mistaken - she must have interpreted something wrong, or there must have been a miscommunication somewhere. I've never met Night, not personally, but Myga and Alice have. Alice is a good judge of character, most of the time, and Myga has never steered me wrong. Both of them say that Night is a good Pokemon, so I've taken their word for it.

Either way, whether they're right or wrong, we need to get them back.

"Alice!" Then we were interrupted by a soon-to-become-familiar squawk. We stopped in our run and turned to see Ken running toward us. Peng soon followed with a moping Gel (poor guy needs to get back on his feet - his sister going missing, and probably dead, is really taking a number on the guy).

"Alice, where have you been! We've been looking for you!" Ken called over, distraught.

Alice gaped. "But - then why weren't you at the meeting spot?!" She accused. "We were waiting at the clearing for way too long!"

"Clearing?" Ken looked bemused. "You told us to come back to the tents."

"The te- no! I told you to come back to the clearing!" Alice fumed. "Why is everyone so dumb today?!"

"Alice, it's not their fault." I reprimanded. "They made a small mistake, it's nothing to explode over," Alice grumbled. "Anyway, don't we have more important things to worry about?"

She shook her head. "Right. You stay here and explain everything to them. I'll go and find Heila so we can get to the prison on time."

In the blink of an eye, she was gone, leaving a small crackling trail of fire in her wake. The four of us blinked.

"Okay…" Peng slowly started. "Do you mind telling us what's happened? 'Cause something's definitely happened."

I shook my head. "I don't even know where to begin."

"Okay, start with why Alice went off to find… who's Heila?" Peng asked.

"Heila is some Xatu Alice has apparently gotten a favor out of. She's from Team Shulk."

"Okay… why does Alice want her right now? Aren't we supposed to be finding Glacia right about now?" Then Peng brightened up. "Wait, I know! Xatu are supposed to have clairvoyant abilities, right? Maybe she's going to use them to find Glacia!"

"Uh… no. We need her psychic abilities for something else - to teleport to Night's prison."

"Teleport to Night's prison? But… why?" Ken asked, tilting his head slightly. "What does she have to do with anything. Shouldn't we go and find Glacia instead?

"Glacia has taken the backseat for now. Something a little more pressing just came up. Hopefully, Glacia will be alright for the next hour or so." I explained.

"What's happened, then - why do we have to go to Night's prison?"

"We?" For some reason, I was slightly confused. "What do you-"

"If it's so important that Glacia's rescue has to take a backseat," Peng explained slowly. "Then we need to go too, don't we?"

"I- yeah," I admitted. "If we're going to navigate the prison, we'll need all the help we can get." It felt a little reassuring, too, knowing that my only backup in the prison wasn't my slightly homicidal teammate. "We have to go to stop and retrieve Team Ness."

"Team Ness? Why are they over at Night's prison?"

"To rescue Glacia - or at least, they think they're rescuing Glacia." I amended. "Vinia somehow got it into her head that Night kidnapped Glacia and is at the head of some grandiose super-conspiracy."

"... you're joking, right?"

"I wish I was joking, Peng. I wish."

"... but then what are we going to do about Glacia? We can't just leave her alone in the woods - we need someone to stay here." Peng looked at me. "I don't think any of us will be willing to leave if Glacia is still in danger, after all."

The trouble was that Peng was right. We have to be in two places at once - both Glacia and Team Ness need our help.

Peng continued. "Then we'll have to split up. Some of us will go to rescue Team Ness, while the others find Glacia."

"But who will stay behind, then?" I had to ask. "We need to go as soon as possible, so we need to know who's willing to stay behind to find Glacia."

Peng stepped forward. "I'm not that good at sensing things, so I think I'd be better used in the retrieval mission - and the same goes for Ken." Ken nodded at this.

"Alice isn't going to stay behind no matter what anyone says, so…" I sighed. "I guess I'm going to have to stay back, then, while you all go off to Night's prison." In the end, it really wasn't that surprising. I easily have the greatest sensory abilities of everyone here.

"Night's prison?!" A familiar insectoid voice shouted. Myga came barreling into view, followed closely by a panting Kol.

She came to a close stop. "I… we were looking for Glacia, and we decided to come to here…" Her breathing was heavy. "Prison?"

I relayed the information one more time, keenly aware of the precious time we were wasting.

Myga looked deeply concerned. "But that's ridiculous! Night could never be something like that!"

Despite the common sense Myga had just made, something strange had wormed its way into my gut, though I couldn't recognize what it was.

Kol stared at me, his eyes narrowed. "We can't afford to waste time with the rest of Team Ness. They'll be safe in Night's prison - her security is top-notch. We still don't know where Glacia is, too. We have to stay here and look for Glacia - that's the absolute priority. If Team Ness gets caught, they'll be disciplined, and nothing else."

Something was definitely wrong, though I couldn't put my finger on it. Kol was making a degree of sense - but still, to ignore Team Ness entirely in the search for Glacia?

"Koga, we're back! Get in here… Myga!" Alice had finally returned, with a disgruntled Xatu in tow. "You guys are all finally here! Where were you guys?"

Myga was about to explain, but I cut her off with a more pressing issue. "Alice, they don't want to go rescue Team Ness - they're saying Glacia is a higher priority."

Alice gave a barking laugh. "Sure, if you want to stay behind and look for Glacia, go ahead! But I'm not going to let those brats get into trouble - I'm going to drag them back here and give them all a piece of my mind!"

She looked at the Xatu. "Heila, get ready to teleport, we're leaving soon."

Heila groaned. "I shouldn't have promised you anything. I should have seen this coming." She ruffled her feathers a little bit. "How many are coming, then?"

Alice looked at the assembled crowd. "If you don't want to come, I don't care. If you're coming, say it _now_." Her resolute gaze sharpened. "I'm not going to dawdle."

… you know, Alice has made this strangely easy.

"I'm in." As much as Alice was concerning me with her fixation on Vinia… she wasn't wrong. We _had_ to go to the prison, to bring them back. I can't put my finger on it, since Myga was making a little more sense, but…

Myga shook her head. "I'm staying. If you're going, Alice… that's fine. I still think that finding Glacia's more important than illegally breaking into a prison." She looked around. "Who else is staying?"

Kol stepped forward. "I'm with you, Myga. Right now, Glacia is the top priority - we can bring them back later."

Alice didn't bother looking at either of the Electric types. I shuffled around a little bit but made no motion to join them.

"... I'm going with Alice." Ken stepped forward. "I… I trust you. Glacia will be fine… for now. And you'll need all the help you can get."

Peng nodded. "Well said. Myga, Kol, out of all of us, you guys are the best trackers. I don't think we'll be able to help find Glacia anyway."

The rest of us turned to Gel, who looked pained. "I… Kol… I'm not sure…"

Gel was a far cry from the optimistic Ice Pokemon he once was. What was once a stalwart legionnaire of snow was now a shivering pile of slush.

The loss of Strawberry… it hit him hard.

Gel shook his head. "I… Peng, are you sure… ? What if we mess up? What if we get in trouble…?"

Peng stomped over to the wreck. "Gel, get a grip on yourself!" She slapped him hard, dazing him. "We don't have time for this! Make your decision!"

Gel blubbered. "B-but…"

A flash of manipulative inspiration struck me. Gel wouldn't stop talking about his sister the few times that I met him - she's important to him.

"Gel… what would Strawberry say?"

A look of panic entered Gel's eyes. "W-what?!"

"What would she say, if she saw you frozen to the ground like this?"

Gel looked away. "She'd… she'd ask what was wrong - what was bothering me. She'd offer to help, a-and she wouldn't-"

"Alright, that's it!" Alice interrupted, barging in. "No dawdling, remember. This guy's too slow anyway, he's useless."

"U-useless?!" Gel stared at Peng.

"When you can't even decide even with everyone giving you all the reasons in the world, how can I trust you to watch our backs?!" Alice scoffed. "You should stay here, where you're in your little bubble of _safety_. You can't help us."

She turned to Heila. "You got that? You're taking me, Koga over there, the Torchic, and the Prinplup. The rest are staying. Teleport us straight to center of the prison, we'll figure out where to go from there."

Myga stepped forward. "Alice, this is a stupid plan - if you can even call it that? If you're going to go, you have to at least think of what you're going to-"

"We'll figure it out once we get there! Heila, get ready!"

Heila started glowing with soft light, as the psychic energy grew. "You'd better be careful, Alice, if you're going to stay undetected."

Alice glowed with confidence. "Heila, don't bother worrying for me. I won't fail."

The light grew to be blinding. Several Pokemon passing by shielded their eyes. I felt my body getting lighter as the seconds ticked by.

Then with a flash - "Wait!" - and a cold rush of air, the ground disappeared beneath our feet.

* * *

A split second later, we all tumbled to the ground, disoriented. My head felt like someone had brought a rock onto it - almost cracked.

"Heila…" Alice moaned. "Heila, why was it so uncomfortable-"

"Because of our uninvited guest, Alice - that 'Gel'!" Heila snarked.

Sure enough, the Ice Pokemon was there, retching on the ground. Snowflakes spilled on the ground as he tried to pick himself up.

"'Gel' almost disrupted my Teleportation! I barely managed to account for him too, you should be lucky that all that went wrong was mild discomfort."

Heila laid one last scathing glance. "This is where I go, Alice." Heila turned away from Alice, tired. "I have to get back to the Breaking. Figure out how you're going to get back on your own, I have more important things to do." With a flash of light, Heila was gone.

"... so, you decided to join us, Gel?" I couldn't stop myself from asking. "Why couldn't you have chosen sooner and saved us all the trouble?"

"... I don't know." Gel admitted. "I just… there's no reason, Koga. I needed to come - that's all. This is important, even though I don't know why."

"Ugh… at least _some_ advance warning would be nice, Gel." Alice snarked.

"Didn't I tell you to wait?!"

"We were halfway gone!"

As they bickered, Peng went to pick up a flattened Ken. "Geez, quiet down!" She squawked in their direction. "Would you take a look at where we are?!"

"Where we- the prison, right," Gel nodded.

Night's prison wall loomed over us. Large blocks of basalts made up the walls, with no opening in sight - though that was probably because we weren't at the entrance. I got a strange sense of foreboding - awful Pokemon resided in this prison.

"This darkness… this is what a prison feels like, huh?" I whispered under my breath. I was a dark type, so shiftiness and secrecy were my bread and butter, but this was _way_ beyond what I was used to.

Peng and Ken looked similarly uncomfortable, while Gel was wary. "Is this… who _designed_ this place?"

"Night did. She said she liked the aesthetic," Alice remarked, a little uncomfortably. "I don't see the appeal much, but to each their own."

Ken shivered. "This place is creepy - can we get Team Ness and go already?"

Alice nodded. "Yeah - Koga, can you find us an opening to enter the prison? Your species is good at that stuff, right?"

"Yeah - just give me a few minutes."

I was on the move, looking for openings we could get into - as was my species' infiltration specialty. Of course, when building secure buildings like prisons they _did_ use Greninja and other species like us to find vulnerable spots. That would be a problem, except that the weakness locators always leave a few spots open in case _they_ want to infiltrate.

Surely enough, there was an opening on the other side of the building. It was only a foot tall and it was camouflaged so well it was practically invisible, but we would be able to sneak into it with only a little bit of difficulty.

Walking back to the camp, I came across our 'team' arguing.

"What do you mean, you don't think we should punish Vinia?!" Alice raged. "She's the reason we're in this mess - if it wasn't for her, we would have already found Glacia and would have been Venturing with everyone else!"

"But she did it with good faith!" Gel argued back. "Vinia wanted nothing more than to find Glacia - and for some reason, she thought that Glacia was in Night's prison."

"She knows full well that Glacia isn't in here - I don't know _how_ the other kids were convinced, with no evidence or anything of that sort!" Alice raged. "Of course, she'd already gotten them riled up over Night with thoughts of conspiracy and danger! Why would you think that she doesn't deserve punishment at all!"

Gel fumed. "Alice, I-"

"Would you two shut up already? Koga's back!" Peng interrupted, peeved beyond visual recognition.

"Vinia needs to-"

"WHEN I SAY STOP IT, I MEAN IT!" Peng slapped Alice hard, waking her out of her vitriolic rant. "Decide all these things later!"

She turned to me. "Did you find a route inside, Koga?"

I awkwardly nodded, feeling like I was placed inside of a microscope. Peng sighed.

"That's good. Ken, keep an eye on these two loudmouths so they don't cause any more grief for us." Ken obeyed near instantly, not wanting to incur Peng's wrath.

Why are _all_ the females I know so… loud?

I led our 'team' over to the opening. Alice looked at it skeptically.

"Can we really _all_ fit in here, Koga?"

I nodded. "Yeah, if we squeeze in real hard and go in one at a time." I demonstrated, going in with some difficulty. "It'll be hard for most of us, especially you, Alice, but we'll all be able to get in eventually."

Ken interrupted. "Once we get into the prison, where are we going?"

"Deep into the center of the prison. That's where I met Night last time, so that's where she'll probably be. Vinia and the rest of Team Ness won't be too far behind since they're on their little crusade. Since we're stronger than them, we should make it there first - then we'll stop them and escape this place." Alice quickly explained looking antsy.

"But the more time we spend here talking, the less time we'll have to find the rest of Team Ness. So get _moving_!"

Understanding the relative urgency of the matter, we quickly filed into the tiny opening. I'm normally five feet tall, so a square-foot opening was nightmarish. Luckily, I was so thin I that could make it in.

After a good ten meters of painful crawling, we made it into the other side of the prison. We weren't by any cells - we must have been in one of the side hallways of the facility.

Alice phased through the walls, looking cheeky. "There - now that we're all inside, we can start moving forward."

The pain burned as an awful ticking sound entered my ears. "Ugh… Alice, shouldn't they already be in the center by now?"

Alice shook her head. "This place is built like a maze from here on out. I'm pretty sure it's to slow down any jailbreaks if they happen, the walls are too thick to just blast through. It'll slow them down enough for us to catch up."

"So how are _we_ getting through?" I asked, nursing a particularly painful ache on my shoulder. The ticking noise grew louder as we spoke. "How will the maze not slow _us_ down?"

Alice responded by phasing through me

Once she exited me again, she resumed talking. "I can get through the prison rather easily, thanks to the walls not slowing me down as much. It'll take too long to move you all individually through the walls, though. I'm going on alone - you guys figure out where you're going from here. If you find them, stop them as soon as possible, got it?"

Of _course_ she decided to go her own way…

… and she would have, if that way hadn't disappeared.

As Alice was phasing into the wall of the facility, there was a strange bell-like sound echoing around the room.

 _BONG_

"No… not again…" Peng whispered with eyes widened.

Alice peeked backward. "What is it, Peng?"

 _BONG_

"That noise… when it happened the first time around, I thought I was just hearing things… though Tom could hear it, too…"

 _BONG_

Alice immediately snapped to attention, pulling herself out of the wall. "Hear what?"

 _BONG_

 _BONG_

 _BONG_

The bongs stopped - but Peng and Gel didn't look relieved at all.

"The Twisting…"

Then, out of nowhere, dimensions began to warp. I felt the need to throw up consume me, though I managed to barely stave it off.

Endless pain dances through my brain. If I was any weaker, I would fall into a sweet unconscious.

Then, it pain ends with a snap, and I open my eyes…

… to a Mystery Dungeon.

* * *

 **Night's Prison**

"A Twisting?" Alice paced the ground, fuming. "Of all things to happen, a _Twisting_? Why _here_? Why _now_?!"

"They can happen anywhere, Alice, " I reminded her, feeling a little fed up myself. "But they never happen in a place where there are already Pokemon."

Peng frowned. "That can't be true, surely there's been a village or something-"

Alice turned to her. "What do you mean, Peng?" Alice laughed incredulously. "It's a rule - Mystery Dungeons takes the space unoccupied by Pokemon for its creation. It's _never_ \- flat-out _never_ \- taken somewhere where Pokemon are living."

Alice turned to the entranceway of the Mystery Dungeon. "But somehow, it appeared here and now - and of _course_ it happens now! Nothing can go right today, _huh_?!"

(It wasn't until later that we found out just how true her last statement was)

"You can still phase through walls, though, right?"

Alice scoffed. "Of course I can, Koga! But since the Mystery Dungeon will be fighting me the entire time, it'll take all my energy to move just a few feet. I can't use it in this Mystery Dungeon…" She blew out a spurt of flame. "And now we won't have to go through just _one_ maze - but several!"

She gestured behind her. "And now we're inside the Dungeon's trap, we can't even leave the way we came." Just like she said, the entryway we entered through was completely sealed off - we couldn't return. "Now we have to go through the dungeon, with nothing but hope! Hope that we're strong enough to clear it! Hope that we can find Team Ness in time! Hope that we haven't just _ruined our lives_!"

At this point, Alice was near hyperventilating, her head flame flickering erratically.

"Alice?!" Then one of those hopes was realized.

There, off in a corridor to the side of the chamber the Mystery Dungeon had formed for our 'convenience', was the objective of our original mission.

We had found Team Ness… and Vinia.

Alice snapped out of her funk. "Tom?"

"What are you doing here, Alice?"

Alice was dumbstruck. Then large puffs of smoke started blowing from her head flame. " _What am I doing here? WHAT AM I DOING HERE_?"

She ran over to Tom and socked him on the head, before doing the same to Naetle (Merla dodged before she could hit her). "You three are _idiots_! Glacia _isn't here_! She's somewhere back at the campsite, wondering why her team has abandoned her!"

She looked at him with disappointment. "I don't know _how_ Vinia managed to trick you into thinking that Night is evil, but-"

"But she is!" Tom argued, eyes fierce. "Didn't you look at the prison cells, Alice. Night's turned them into drooling maniacs - they're like… like zombies or something!"

Zombies?

"Zombies?" Alice developed a look of concern - one that, strangely enough, was mirrored in the rest of Team Ness. "What are…"

Tom sighed. "Am I the only one who's heard of zombies before?" He shook his head. "You know, like… like… ugh, never mind."

"Tom, we need to get you checked out once we returned." The confusion managed to snap Alice out of her rage - which is a useful trick I'll have to remember. "Right now, we need to escape this dungeon."

Vinia shook her head. "No, we have to find Glacia-"

"NO!" Alice vehemently denied what Vinia was going to say. "What _you_ are going to do, _Vinia,_ is Teleport us once we get out of this Dungeon!"

Vinia ground her teeth. "Glacia is _here_ , listen to-"

"I've had _enough_ of your lies and deception, Vinia. Just be quiet." Alice sneered. "I'm not going to listen to what you have to say, so be quiet."

Vinia threw a glare in her direction and put her head down.

"Now that that's done, we're entering the dungeon!"

"But-"

"But nothing! Do you see Glacia here? No? Then there's no point in staying, end of discussion!" She marched into the entrance of the Dungeon.

Not wanting to be separated, the rest of us - Team Ness, Vinia, Ken, Peng, Gel and I - followed.

* * *

 **Night's Prison 1F**

Once we were all inside, Alice turned to face us. "Okay, this is how it's going to work. We'll split up into three groups since there's so many of us. Each of us will look separately for the stairs. If you find it, _don't go inside_. Meet up with the rest of us at a designated meeting spot, and we'll all go together. Got it?"

There was a slow round of nods. Alice, designating herself the temporary leader, nodded. "Tom, you and Koga are coming with me. Vinia, you're going with Peng and Gel. Ken, you're going with Merla and Naetle. Any objections?"

There were none.

"Great. We're meeting here in fifteen minutes. That should give us enough time to find the staircase." She gestured to me and Tom. "Let's go." The three groups dispersed, and soon enough we were all on our way.

The walk was tense - Alice didn't say anything to Tom, and Tom didn't say anything to Alice. For some reason, though, the Mystery Dungeon didn't construct any false Pokemon for us to fight - another anomaly, then. We walked through the eerie halls of the Mystery Dungeon, but nobody came to fight us.

Even when we found the staircase, there wasn't much fanfare. We headed back to the meeting spot and waited for the others to arrive. Soon afterward, they came. The entire group headed to the staircase and climbed on.

For the next few floors, we went through the same procedure - split up, find the staircase, go back to get together again, and go to the next floor. The silence didn't wane - neither of them was willing to budge.

I honestly felt stuck between a Hippowdon and a Golem on the issue. On one hand, Alice's arguments made sense, and she usually had enough sense to deal with these issues. But I can't help but feel like her anger is compromising her rationality - she's raging too much to make the usual decisions.

Vinia, on the other hand… like I was thinking earlier, she didn't _sound_ like a liar - she honestly believed what she was saying. It sounded _insane_ , but Vinia believed the conspiracy she had cooked up with all of her heart.

The thing was… it's too fantastic to believe. There were issues with the leadership of Jeden City - Ghost-types were hated to an incredible degree, and power was concentrated at the leader of the Base - Captain Falcon. But something like _this_ reeked of a personal grudge against Night, rather than a legitimate criticism against the leadership.

There was no right or wrong option, so I really didn't have any way to sway my opinion.

Until…

* * *

 **Night's Prison 2F**

 **Night's Prison 3F**

 **Night's Prison 4F**

 **Night's Prison 5F**

* * *

Loud moans hauntingly echoed through the hallways of the Mystery Dungeon. Pokemon routinely screamed in ecstasy, not caring what we were doing or who we were.

They shouted one thing in particular, though….

" _Night… Night… Night!"_ The chant continued on and on, saying the exact same thing over and over again. " _Night… Night… Night..._ "

Alice was dumbfounded. "Why are they saying that? Are they crazy or something?"

Tom turned to Alice. "They're Night's brainwashed slaves. She hypnotized them into loving her and her only - that's what we've been trying to tell you!"

Even with the evidence in front of us, I could still hardly believe my eyes. "What… you're joking…"Alice whispered, disbelief rampant in her voice. "This… this can't be true. How could…?"

This had to be an illusion or something. A Zoroark must be laying its trick over our eyes or we're being fed images or…

… or it's all true. This isn't just a prison, and this isn't just a rescue anymore.

Alice gulped. "We… we have to find the others. The staircase can wait for now."

Once we returned, we found the others similarly shaken. Ken looked on the verge of throwing up, while Gel was shaking uncontrollably. Naetle wasn't taking it well, either - the Turtwig was wide-eyed and almost crying.

Merla stepped forward and faced Alice in the eye, anger simmering in her eyes. "You saw it too, didn't you?!"

Alice said nothing.

"This prison is hardly the bastion of justice you thought it to be, Alice. Did you think we were just invading some building just because Vinia told us to?"

Alice said nothing and averted her eyes.

Merla continued with her cold rage. "Face the truth. The 'conspiracy' is the truth, and you know it."

"... we need to contact the Venturer-"

"This goes up to Captain Falcon."

Alice's eyes widened. "Him too?"

Then, unbelievably, she began to laugh. "Of course it's him too. This is… this has to be a bad dream. Yeah, that's what this…" Her laughter died off into tears. "This is a nightmare."

No one could answer her. If only she was right in the more literal sense…

"We can't take this standing down, though. We're going to escape this… 'prison' and contact _someone_ who isn't in her web. She doesn't have the whole world, does she?!"

Vinia stepped up. "No, it's only Captain Falcon and some Venturers scattered throughout the base. They're the ones who micromanage for her cause… whatever it is."

I turned to Vinia. "Do you know their identities?"

Vinia turned away. "... no."

A bald-faced lie. She didn't want to reveal their identities.

I grabbed her, startling everyone. "Vinia," I said as calmly as possible. "Tell us who's under Night's control. I know you know their identities - I can sense lies."

Vinia quailed for a second. Then she regained her spine and looked at me. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"... really?" I replied. I couldn't sense her lying - which meant that she was telling the truth, or at the very least she believed she was telling the truth. Either way…

"Koga, don't pry any deeper," Alice said, not look at either of us. "We'll deal with it later. For now, we need to get out of here. This isn't a safe zone, either, so we need to get a move on."

At that point, we resumed making our way through the floors of the dungeon. Alice and Tom were on speaking terms again, thankfully, which allowed for the silence be mostly filled. We encountered some constructs and battled them.

Curiously, the Dungeon's constructs wouldn't attack or even retaliate against the walking prisoners. It was a real sight to behold, and another oddity in this dungeon.

"Hey, Alice, why do you think the prisoners aren't being attacked?"

"I don't know and I don't care, Koga," Alice told me brusquely. "What I do know is that we need to get out of here as soon as possible. There will be investigations later."

I said nothing else, but a profound sense of eeriness came over me, yet it had nothing to do with the awful moaning.

This… everything was turning out bizarrely today. Glacia turned feral and ran away, everyone was acting angry and irrational, Night - flipping _Night_! - was secretly the leader of an _evil_ _conspiracy_ , and now this Mystery Dungeon was breaking a lot of previously established rules.

I just want this nightmare to be over already.

* * *

 **Night's Prison 6F**

 **Night's Prison 7F**

 **Night's Prison 8F**

 **Night's Prison 9F**

* * *

This floor seemed like all the others. There were different prisoners, as usual - in fact, I think I saw some of the criminals we had previously apprehended (we found the Bellossom from the cupcake incident. Tom and I had to drag Alice away from massacring the wayward prisoner)

"Koga," Alice said to me. "If there are all of these prisoners in the halls of the Mystery Dungeon… then where do you think Night is?"

"I would have to say… in the Dungeon too?" The longer I stayed in this dungeon, the more I felt wary and fearful of Night. To have all these Pokemon under her control, for so long, unknown... "Do you think we'll have to fight her?"

"We may have to, Koga," Alice admitted. "If she finds us, I don't think she'll be willing to let us go. All three of us may be immune to her Hypnosis, but none of the others have our protection. If she gets to them, she'll come after us."

"So either we all escape, or we fight against Night here and now?"

"Yeah," Alice admitted.

"And we have to think about Glacia too."

"I'm still not sure she's here, Tom. If she was here, she'd have been knocked to the entrance with us, but she wasn't."

Unspoken went the argument that Glacia was now a prisoner and brainwashed by Night. That would give her immunity to the effects of the Twisting like it had with all of the other prisoners.

Tom gulped and his head bowed in worry. "I'm… I'm scared." He confessed. "What if she's too far gone? What if we're unable to rescue her? What if…" Tom fell silent - because there was a crying sound.

"Is that…" Tom ran ahead, ignoring our cries for him to calm down. We chased him, moderately concerned, until we found him standing next to a _shiny Vanillite_?!

Wait…

"Strawberry?!" Alice exclaimed. "Is that you?!" Strawberry looked continued to cry, inconsolable.

"Alice, we have to bring her with us." There was no room for debate - I made sure of it.

"... yeah." Alice said, looking at Strawberry. "No need to remind me. You carry her since you're not a fire type."

I nodded and scooped her up into my arms, cold to the touch. We rushed back to the meeting spot - hopefully, the other teams had found a way to the staircase.

When we arrived, all hell broke loose - loudest of all from Gel.

"STRAWBERRY!" He rushed forward and picked his sister up.

"G-GEL!" Strawberry wept in his arms. "YOU-YOU'RE BAAAAAAAAACCCKKK!" She bawled in his embrace.

They were like that for a while, until Strawberry cried herself into an unresponsive stupor.

"Strawberry… Strawberry…" Gel only had eyes for her.

Peng looked at us, incredulous. "How did you find her?! She's been missing for-"

"She was crying in the corner, Peng." I immediately answered. "Tom figured-"

"No!" Peng shook her head. "I mean… Why was she here? Henka was the one who kidnapped her - how is she in this prison?"

That lead to an unfortunate conclusion…

"They were working together, then…" Gel whispered. His eyes, which were slowly coming back into focus, were full of rage. "Henka and Night - they were working together. I bet you my soul that Henka sold the Pokemon he captured to Night, for… for whatever she uses her puppets for. They've been helping each other."

Gel stood up, the frigid air around him belying the dark fire in his eyes. "He - no, _they_ \- will pay for what they've done to us, Strawberry. I will take Night down if it's the last thing I do."

"No, Gel, we have to-" Alice interrupted, before being blasted by an Ice Beam by Gel.

Gel looked coldly on Alice. "I've had _enough_ of your bossing around, Alice. I don't care what you do or don't do - Night and Henka have done too much harm to us, and no matter how far we run they'll be a danger to us. We're taking them down, _today_."

"But it's too danger-"

" _Too dangerous_? Is that what you wanted to say? _Too dangerous_?" Gel laughed. "It's too dangerous if it's not _you_ who's coming up with the plan, Alice. These kids, infiltrating a prison to rescue their friend? Too dangerous. Me trying to take down the kidnapper? Too dangerous? Well, guess what? I don't care anymore. I'm a Pokemon on a mission to stop those that hurt the Pokemon precious to him.

"That, Alice, is _dangerous_."

Alice, for the first time I'd ever seen, was cowed.

Gel picked up crying Strawberry. "Koga, Peng?"

"Y-yes?"

Gel handed Strawberry over to me. "If something happens… take care of Strawberry, would you?"

"Wait, what are you going to do?"

"Take a guess, Koga." Before I could do or say anything more, Gel was off, racing through the hallways.

A split second later we were running after him.

* * *

 **Night's Prison 10F**

On one hand, we didn't have to chase him down too far. We had chased him through the ninth floor, and when he went onto the staircase we were only ten seconds behind or so. Once we got onto the tenth floor, we fully caught up to him.

On the other hand…

"Wheh-heh-heh!" A horde of Inverted Sableye grinned at us. Gel was lying on the ground, covered in hundreds of scratches and scrapes.

Gel groaned and turned to us. "Stay… stay back. Keep Strawberry safe!"

"Like hell we are!" Alice raged, pulling out a conflagration of burning flames. "Who are these guys?!"

Of all the Pokemon I expected to answer, Naetle wasn't one of them. "The Sableye," Naetle said, face in pain. "I'd recognize their faces anywhere."

I turned to Naetle. "You recognize these guys?"

Naetle turned to me, eyes dark. "They were with me back in the past- No, you wouldn't believe me."

"You're time travelers right?" Naetle nodded.

"Alice told you, then?"

"Yeah, although she sounded skeptical. I don't think skepticism is valid here. They're time travelers too?" Before Naetle could say anything else, he was interrupted by a barrage of Fury Swipes from the grinning Sableye.

The Sableye hissed and jabbed forward, interrupting our mid-battle conversation."You know, brat, we aren't willing to stand around while you _explain_ everything."

Then the battle was on. Each of the Sableye took on one of us. Luckily, mine wasn't too difficult to deal with - just a few dodges of the Fury Swipes and a few retaliations with some Water Shuriken, and the Sableye, was pretty much harmless, with the way they were piteously lying on the floor.

Then, before I could help the others, I fell over, my limbs locking to stop me from moving. I pushed my muscles but to no avail.

Didn't I beat the Sableye? What happened?

As the battle dragged on, I began to panic. The rest of the team was falling - not to unconsciousness, no, but simply falling on the ground.

"Hey, Koga" Then, unbelievably, I heard…

"Myga?!" I managed before I felt a Thundershock stab at me.

"Don't say anything, would you? Don't mess this up, please. I've been waiting for this for a _long_ time" Myga crawled forward. Somehow I wasn't able to really comprehend what was going on. What was Myga doing here? Why did she use that Thundershock on me? Why-

"Oh, hello, Alice," Myga said, walking across the various bodies that littered the floor. Four of the Sableye we had initially fought were lying on the ground, unconscious. The one I fought wasn't one of them.

But if they had lost four, we had lost six. Tom and Alice were the only ones left, fighting two and three Sableye respectively. Everyone else was lying on the ground along with me, electricity sparking on their bodies.

Electricity…

No… No… I can't be… NO!

"Myga?!" Alice exclaimed, twisting around to face their teammate - only to be hit in the back by a bolt of black energy fired from one of the Inverted Sableyes.

Myga said nothing as the Sableye capitalized on the advantage, smashing Dark and Ghost-type attacks into Alice with sadistic gusto. Then she smiled.

"Being forced to listen to your commands, often at the expense of Mistress Night's commands, was beyond aggravating."

"...no…" was all that I could say. "No… Myga… you…" Then it caught up to me. Why the Link Box went missing. Why Myga had been even more glowing of Night than Alice.

Why Myga had paralyzed us and shocked me.

"Myga… you TRAITOR!" I screamed, forcing myself to stand through paralysis. "How… how could you!"

"How could she?" Another familiar voice rang through the inside of the prison. Then power lines of energy danced through my veins. I screamed, then croaked awfully and fell to the ground.

Through the haze, I saw one who I thought was once an ally… Kol. But the friendly look was wiped clean from his face, to be replaced with one that radiated scorn and hate.

"You asked 'How could she', right, Koga?" I grit my teeth as a despicable smirk stretched across Kol's face. "That's not really a question, is it? Any bonds or enjoyment we might have shared - which, quite frankly, I didn't - was insectual compared to the joy Night provides merely with her presence."

"No… Kol…" Peng whispered. Kol sneered at her. "But… but… why?"

"Will you all ask the same questions over and over again? No, I wasn't your friend. I was never really your friend, not at all."

"But why Night?" Peng screamed hoarsely. "She's… she's controlling you. Fight it, Kol! Fight it. You can-"

"I have to stop you, Peng, though your attempts at a 'Reach to the Friend Inside' are admirably pathetic. No, you never knew the old Kol - a shy, kind, _boring_ boy. Night wiped that away with the purity of her Hypnosis and brought birth to me - the suave and smart commander of Team Link. Oh, and fellow servant Captain Falcon helped with the last bit."

He gestured to Myga. "And really, the only reason _she_ wasn't the leader of Team Zelda is because of Night's partiality toward Alice - for whatever reason that we're not privy to.

"Partiality?" Alice whispered. "What do you-"

"It means the only reason you were allowed to exist in Jeden City in the first place was that Night wanted you around, _for some reason_." Myga huffed. "Getting permanent guard duty on you wasn't the way I'd predict the majority of my life going, but _here we are_!"

Alice could only gape.

"Ugh, your face disgusts me. Sableye, would you mind blurring it a little bit? Anything would do, but scratches, scrapes, and bruises are always excellent choices."

The lead Sableye grinned maliciously. "With pleasure."

The Sableye, though, was stopped in his tracks by a furious but panting Tom. "You're… not getting any… closer to her!"

The Sableye responded with an overpowered Foul Play, which sent Tom skidding backward. He stopped himself, though, and charged the Sableyes with a great ball of fire.

The Sableye easily sidestepped the fire and sneered.

"Is this all you have to offer, Tom?" Kol asked, disinterested. "It's really pathetic."

"S-shut up!" Tom hollered. He stood up, blazing. "I… will stop you! I'll stop all of you! You won't hurt anyone else!"

"Geez, Kol. You'd think the kid couldn't get any more 'heroic'." Myga stepped forward. "Alice kept on talking about how 'Tom was growing so fast' and 'Tom was getting so powerful'. You're honestly disappointing out of Alice's fantasies."

" _INFERNO_!" Was Tom's reply.

A great torrent of fire spilled from Tom's wick, washing over all our nearly-unconscious bodies. Myga was pushed back, singeing and cursing as all of the other Sableye burned into the ground, barring the leader.

Kol snorted. "So the kid has some power after all." Kol leaped forward. "I'm bored with the long-awaited reveals. Let's end this charade."

Then there was a brilliant flash of light, as Kol was knocked backward. Tom was glowing and changing, his form mutating grotesquely.

Then, after a long and painful pause, an unconscious Lampent emerged. The Lampent, though, was bleeding an awful white wax out of strange pores in the iron. A few wicks appeared in the holes, some being lit in a whole rainbow of colors. The iron was discolored, with it being a sickly gray with a few odd patches of white iron.

"... that takes care of that," Kol said, half-laughing. "A well-timed evolution… for us." He walked close to Tom. "Might nip this in the bud before it gets any worse."

Kol walked up to the unconscious Tom. "This'll be a mercy kill, really."

He was interrupted, though, by a small puff of cold air.

Strawberry, trying her hardest, blew a weak Icy Wind in Kol's direction. Kol responded with a Fire Fang to warm himself up.

"Ugh, it's _you_. You're the one that Henka likes to torture. That's probably why you weren't abducted like the rest of the inmates too, huh?"

"Wait…" Gel stood up shakily and looked at Kol with vacant eyes." Kol… what do you mean?" Then some clarity was entering his eyes. "You're working for Night, and Night is working with Henka… so… so…"

"Yes, Gel, you complete idiot. I was the one who freed Henka all those months ago, during that outlaw mission. While Peng and Tom were busy chatting about types or whatever, I just snuck out and melted the ice block. Keep up, would you?"

Gel responded with an insanely strong Ice Beam in Kol's direction. As Kol dodged, Gel began to yell himself hoarse.

" _I'LL MAKE YOU PAY!_ " Gel charged at Kol, fury flowing freely. They engaged in a dangerous dance, the two former 'friends', aiming to kill. " _YOU WON'T LEAVE HERE ALIVE! YOU WILL PAY FOR YOUR CRIMES!_ "

Gel's shouts galvanized me. Returning from the edge of unconsciousness, Alice and I faced our former teammate.

"I wish it didn't have to turn out this way, Myga," Alice faced Myga with an unreadable look on her face. "But enough is enough." Alice shot her own Inferno toward Myga, who dodged with a dark grace.

I Water Slashed toward her ( a fusion of Water Shuriken and Slash), which she countered with a Thunder Arc. The electricity sizzled me, but I continued my attack.

Peng went to join Gel in his fight against Kol. The two were struggling, especially without Kol's check on the team, Rokka.

* * *

(Rokka)

* * *

Where is everybody?

Naetle, Merla, and Vinia fought against the remaining Sableye, who was giving them a run for their money. The talented Merla was routinely being outfoxed by the Sableye's tactics, while Naetle, as skilled as he seemed, simply wasn't strong enough to match the Sableye blow for blow (Vinia wasn't contributing much - her skills hadn't developed as much to match the other two and she had a crippling type advantage defect).

Somehow, though, we were turning the tide. Myga's electric attacks, while painful, weren't enough to keep me down for long, and Alice's flames were putting Myga on the burner. Peng and Gel knew each other's strengths just as well as Kol did, and they knew his weaknesses too. Soon enough, they were putting him on the backfoot.

Even the rookies were pushing the Sableye back, as tough as it seemed.

Then the Sableye fell - which was followed by the arrival of a blank-eyed Alakazam.

"Ugh, finally!" Myga groaned. "These guys were getting annoying. Night sent you, right?" At the nod of the Alakazam, Myga stretched her legs. "Guys, it was fun - no, not actually - while it lasted. Take us away."

With a flash of light, the two electric-types disappeared, before Gel's final Ice Beam could land.

* * *

Those that were paralyzed were fed the Cheri Berries we had scrounged up in the Dungeons. We barely had enough, but soon, everyone was able to move properly. We trussed up and immobilized the Sableye as soon as possible - except they somehow disappeared when we weren't looking.

Everyone had recovered, though - except for Tom, that is. Tom was still unconscious - and by the looks of it, as ill as they went. His botched evolution caused him to continuously cry out in pain in sleep, which looked to be breaking Vinia's and Alice's hearts.

Naetle brought me to the side for a second.

"Koga, do you have any idea what just happened to Tom?!" He was half-panicking.

I tried to console him the best I could. "Yes, Naetle, I know botched evolutions are dangerous for the health and could kill you in the long-term, but if we get him to a healer soon, we can complete the evolution and then correct the damage the botched-"

"No! I mean, the botched evolution is bad, but it also makes no sense!"

I was confused. "... what exactly do you mean?"

"Because of the distortion! Tom shouldn't be evolving, period!"

"What distortion?"

I then got a crash course on what time travel did to a Pokemon's body - namely, the distortion it creates around a Pokemon. The distortion blocked evolution, and Tom had one too."

"Sorry, Naetle, but I don't know why Tom was an exception." Then I had a stray thought. "Maybe that's why the evolution went so badly. He had to evolve, but the distortion partially blocked it, leaving him to half-evolve?"

Naetle didn't look convinced. "I'm… not sure. And what's with the weird coloring of the iron? The wax and wicks I get, but the iron should be pure itself, right?"

I didn't know enough about malformed evolutions to say for sure.

As we spoke, Gel walked up to Alice. "I'm… sorry about what I said. I was reckless and stupid and-"

"- and I wouldn't have done differently, Gel," Alice told him bluntly. "It was stupid, but we're both stupid." Alice turned to Vinia. "I'm… I'm sorry as well. You told us we wouldn't like who was a traitor. You meant our teammates." Alice gulped. "I wouldn't have believed you. None of us would have believed you. None of us _could_ have believed you.

Alice sighed. "And I'm still trying to come to terms that Myga - bookish, awkward, but sweet Myga - was nothing as she seemed. I said that I would do anything for Team Zelda, but… now it's just me and Koga. More of a partnership than anything."

Vinia just looked sad, not bothering to look at Alice.

"It's only been a few hours that I've known the fact of their true loyalty myself. It's surprising for me too." Vinia sighed. "Before what happened this morning, I wouldn't have believed me either. I'm just thankful that Team Ness did." She looked up at all of us. "I'll tell you everything that happened this morning - starting with when I found Glacia."

Vinia regaled us with the story of the Miasma emanating Glacia, Myga finding them, Myga and Kol leading them to a clearing, and then Night showing up.

"I barely escaped and ran as fast as I could. It took a couple of tries, but I managed to teleport near where we first met. I… there wasn't enough time to tell you everything. I'm sorry it seemed so rushed. We teleported here - I tried to teleport back into my old room for some quick access, but Night blocked it somehow. We were forced to go through the prison as normal… and you know what happened next."

"... now what?" I had to ask. "What do we do?"

Vinia tiredly stood up. "We're going to do what we came here to do. We're going to go through this dungeon, find Glacia, stop my mother and the rest of her goons, and end her reign of terror."

And then we all, even Strawberry, stood as one.

* * *

(Kavol)

I held the completed radar tight in my hand and chased after the group of Venturers slowly but surely. Team Ness hadn't come today, which meant that I was starving slightly.

How had it come down to this…? Only a month ago, I was just some inventor enjoying his inventing. Now I've invented a distortion tracking advice to prevent some evil Gardevoir from trying to take over the world.

Why can't my life be simple?

Then I shrugged as I passed some of the wild Pokemon. While some attacked me in their feral manner, others were curious at what I had to show them. It made me feel honestly appreciated.

I hefted the radar. All I had to do was hand this over to Vinia and Team Ness, and my part would be virtually over. Then I could relax and help in a more tangential way. The fate of the world wouldn't hang solely on my shoulders.

Then I felt something tap one of my wings, and I twisted around.

A blank-faced Whirlipede and a Pawniard faced me, grinning darkly. Behind them stood a vacant Alakazam.

The Pawniard sandwiched my body to the ground before I could escape. "Kavol, is it?"

"Yes?"

"We've had a tip about you from one of our… informants. You and your Link Box have been _very_ handy. To put it simply, you're going to join us."

The Pawniard grinned, and I felt an impending sense of dread.

"Welcome to HUMANITY."


	17. 17 - An Evil Reborn

**Night's Prison 11F**

 **Night's Prison 12F**

 **Night's Prison 13F**

(Merla)

Once we went past the (supposed) halfway point of the dungeon, the constructs became wilder and fiercer, savagely attacking us the moment they laid eyes on us.

It was apparent that splitting up was now too risky. Accordingly, we changed tactics, much to Alice's grumbling dismay.

The remnants of Team Link guarded our backside against any constructs that wanted to attack. Team Zelda took the helm, attacking any constructs we came across. Team Ness and I, as well as Ken, were in the middle, doing nothing but traveling onward.

It wasn't as if we were weak, by any stretch of the imagination. According to Peng, we were taking on Dungeons bigger and more perilous than any faced before. However, on a mission like this, we couldn't afford to stretch our limits before we could rescue Glacia from Night. One team would have to rest every once in a while.

We couldn't let the two teams take all of the damage, though. To keep strength relatively consistent among all of us, we decided to rotate our positions across the floors. We were on the thirteenth floor, so it was our turn to take the center.

I was starting to feel a little restless. I couldn't sense anything abnormal, and in the time between the constructs' attacks, we were deathly silent - we learned what speaking too loudly would do on the eleventh floor. Construct attacks weren't pleasant. The product? A terribly compounding sense of anxiety.

To distract myself, albeit poorly, I considered the rescue force we had allied with. Each one was different and warranted some thought on how I was going to deal with them.

In our totality, we had recovered well enough from the initial attack by our former 'allies'. But the betrayed teammates still looked shaken.

Gel would often turn to check on Strawberry. Often times a wild look would enter his eyes, his breathing turning ragged. One would think that something deeply wrong was going on - but whenever Strawberry smiled to reassure him, a look of deep relief would cross her brother's face. He would then return to scouting and protecting, a fierce look on his eyes.

Strawberry had relatively poor luck, considering her near-constant state of being kidnapped. Her luck had one saving grace, though, in the form of her brother. Often times in literature, brothers were the most protective of family members, often rivaling mothers in that particular field. Strawberry and Gel were a testament to it being at the very least partially real.

I wonder…

… had I not been afflicted by the accursed Miasma…

… could the relationship I had with Rax be completely different?

...

…

…

It was best not to dwell on fantasies. I dwell on them for far too long in books, anyway.

Peng was doing her job adequately, which was somewhat reassuring in this context. With Gel and Alice being led astray by their emotions and personal attachments, Peng's steadfastness was a blessing. She worked hard to lighten the mood and was moderately successful.

Alice was much more… reticent, for lack of a better word, than she had been earlier. She had been boisterous, obnoxiously so. The consideration she had for others' opinions was marginal at best, and she had remained steadfast in her arrogance. I had attempted, before we had met Myga and the others at the midway point, to change her mind and show her exactly _how wrong_ she was.

I may have failed miserably, though. Usually, shouting at someone works to get messages across - that's how it works in literature, at any rate. The hero shouts to their friend, usually under some delusion or mind control, to 'snap out of it', and eventually their friends are freed.

That didn't work on Alice.

Really, she had only believed when she saw it with her own eyes - and she almost tried to justify what she was seeing as well!

I shook my head. There's not that much that we can do about her overall attitude now. What matters is that now she's on our side and she's going to help us.

Koga was the previously unremarkable Greninja. Really, I had only memorized his name and face on principle. He was so… quiet - and not the pleasant kind. Rather, it was the kind where you forget their existence entirely.

I suppose this prison brings out the oddities in all of us.

I didn't know enough about him to make true judgments about him, so my thoughts on him would have to wait to develop. Because of that, I had to be wary when dealing with him.

Strawberry sniffled. "Gel?" She asked, putting on a watery smile and ignoring the worried looks we wore. "How much longer will it take for us to get out of here?"

Gel leaned and whispered to her, a sound which I could barely hear. "Just a little longer. We'll escape the dungeon and rescue Glacia. Then we'll have Vinia take you someplace where nobody can hurt you."

"B-but what about Night?"

"We'll take care of her, Strawberry. Don't worry about her."

That was hopelessly optimistic of him - or was that him lying to console her? I still can't tell the difference between truth and lies, not efficiently at any rate.

The truth of the matter is that they're most likely in the same place. Unless this Mystery Dungeon breaks even more previously established rules, there's only one 'safe space' in the Dungeon - the midway point. Lady Glacia was neither at the entrance of the Mystery Dungeon or the midway point. She's in the prison, though, as it was confirmed by the traitors.

With that, we can make several deductions as to possibilities.

One: She is trapped within the non-safe space of the dungeon - the 'floors', much like the rest of the prisoners were. Strawberry was a testament to the Dungeon's ability to _not_ eject prisoners specifically to the entrance - they're 'part of the background' in a sense.

That means that she's either dead (a chilling thought, which I can't dwell on) or making her way through the dungeon, just as we are. We must pray for the latter.

Two: She was also ejected, but to the exit. According to Vinia, Night was there to imprison Lady Glacia, and if Glacia is here, then Night is too. But none of the brainwashed prisoners have been acting oddly enough (more oddly than the brainwashing) to justify Night being on the floor.

If they were both ejected to the exit - as may very well be possible - then there's no escaping a confrontation. If that is true, though…

… I can only hope Lady Glacia can resist or counter the Hypnosis in some way. I don't want to lose her to Night's servitude.

There was nothing else we could do beyond Venturing through the dungeon, though. Either we were going to encounter them, or we weren't. There was no point in moping on it.

Soon enough, we came across the staircase to the next floor. We quickly filed into it, moving onto the next floor.

* * *

 **Night's Prison 14F**

 **Night's Prison 15F**

 **Night's Prison 16F**

 **Night's Prison 17F**

* * *

Things were looking both good and bad.

We were now on the seventeenth floor of the dungeon. We were making sure but steady progress - if the tenth floor truly was the midway point, we're nearing the end of the entire dungeon by now. Then we wouldn't have to worry about being Captured by the Dungeon or being killed by the various constructs within.

The bad news… is that we were on the seventeenth floor of the dungeon, and we still hadn't encountered Glacia. It was looking more and more likely that she isn't inside the Dungeon up ahead. In other words, we've either passed her, or she's with Night.

Both are awful options.

What was worse was that we were running low on supplies. None of us came here ready for a Mystery Dungeon - we were only partially packed for the Breaking, with most of the supplies in storage back at the camp.

In addition to that, we had ten Pokemon Venturing with us. While that allowed us to alternate on who fought, ensuring no one got too tired, it also meant that there were ten collective mouths to feed. We had a small bite to eat on the fifteenth floor - which cost us all our food.

Not much of a problem, but there were other supplies, such as Orbs and Seeds, which weren't as plentiful. And with the strength of the constructs increasing the farther we went in, the more we were forced to use to give ourselves an advantage.

What's more, we were fatiguing at this point. Regardless of the rotations, we had a large battle before we entered the second half of the Dungeon - the battle with the traitors. We were paralyzed and beaten down with several super-effective attacks. While we won in the end and recovered slightly, we soon started feeling the pain again four floors in.

Three floors after that and no one was in good shape. Least of all, Tom…

Tom hadn't recovered consciousness yet, and we couldn't rouse him. We had to get moving, and we couldn't leave him behind to the darkness of the dungeon.

In other words, we dragged his unconscious body along for the ride, with the middle team taking care of him. As of now, Team Ness was front and center, taking out any constructs we encountered. Team Link was in the middle and taking care of him, Peng hauling him throughout the floor.

Tom had been breathing heavily through most of the dungeon, coughing and sputtering rather pathetically. He constantly took pained breaths, each one sounding ragged and weak.

His complexion had been souring as well, reverting back to the pale pearlescent white of Litwick wax - although, strangely enough, the iron didn't seem to be melting, To be honest, it seemed that the wax was hardening instead, clanging loudly every time Tom bumped unpleasantly against the dungeon's walls.

Honestly, it would be heartbreaking to see what I was slowly considering to be a friend in this state. But the Dungeon was sapping my empathy away, and I was more concerned with finding Glacia at this point.

Tom's general aura didn't help much. I was feeling a sinister and familiar sensation from him. It was a feeling I experienced earlier today, but I can't recognize from exactly when. I didn't exactly wish to recognize it, either.

As we traveled through the Dungeon, the awful, sinister feeling swelled. I was shivering painfully, which was a little odd given my Invers…

Oh, _no_ …

I took a greater look at Tom, taking a better look at the color of the iron. Tom's body clanged against the wall once more, white iron painfully thudding against the wall.

White iron… when a Lampent's iron was supposed to be pitch black… the strange ice feeling…

… Lady Glacia would be able to help him. She had helped me, after all, and Tom is her friend. She wouldn't let the dark mist plague him for long. If (no! Once!) we managed to rescue her, we would go on to cure Tom.

"How, though?" I couldn't help but whisper to myself. How did Tom become Inverted? He never came into contact with the Miasma…

… the tournament! Team Knight had done something to him - if what Vinia said was true, he was in the process of Inversion at that point, but the fairy type energy reversed it. The evolution must have reawakened some dormant form of the Miasma within him.

"Merla?" Vinia whispered over to me. "What's wrong?"

We had to act, and _fast_. "Vinia," I said aloud, catching everyone off guard. "Tom is becoming Inverted."

The group stopped as they slowly, _painfully_ , comprehended the revelation I had brought upon them. There were several glances toward Tom, followed by gasps of realization and whitening of faces.

"Oh, no… oh no, oh no, _oh no_!" Vinia was staring, transfixed, at Tom's skin. "When? How?!"

"The tournament, probably, and use your Fairy-type moves!" I urged her. "Before he fully transforms!"

Vinia hopped straight to it, chanting a constant Disarming Voice over Tom's prone body. The awful feeling of Miasma receded slightly, and the white iron turned dark before melting into white wax.

Tom opened bleary eyes. "Wha… what happened?"

"Tom!" Alice rushed over to him, knocking Peng and Gel over in the process. "Are you okay? What hurts? How did the Inversion feel-"

"Alice, I'm _fine_!" Tom whined slightly, shaking his head. "You don't need to fuss over me so much. Tam and I-"

Tam?

"Who's Tam?" Naetle asked curiously. Alice's eyes widened.

"I… I don't know," Tom admitted, looking a little disturbed himself. "The name just sort of… slipped out of me."

Alice was gaping slightly, whispering a single word - 'Tim' - over and over again.

Tom turned to Alice. "Oh, by the way, did you say Inversion?" Tom sounded strangely curious. "Is that why some of my iron is whi- Did I evolve?!"

Tom shakily stood up, interrupting Vinia's chant and knocking her down. "I'm a Lampent?! When did this happen?" Shock colored his face. "When did I evolve?!"

"During the fight with Myga, Kol, and the Sableye," Vinia supplied after getting back up again. "After you used Inferno, there was a big flash of light, and then you evolved."

Tom waved his long metal arms around. "I forgot what's like to have long arms - all Litwick have is some weird appendage thing." Tom widened his eyes. "Hold on, when did I turn Inverted?"

Vinia shrugged. "Probably during the tournament -you guys had already left by that point," Vinia responded to the other Teams' alarmed glances. "The Miasma - a strange dark mist that causes Inversion - attacked and almost Inverted Glacia and Tom. Fairy-type moves are effective against it, though."

For such an awful phenomenon, Vinia explained it in a rather blase fashion.

"I… see." Koga swallowed. "What will happen to Tom now?"

Almost as if it was waiting for a cue, a whiff of Miasma escaped Tom's flame, before the wax hardened again into white iron.

Vinia immediately started chanting with Disarming Voice again, and the damage was gone in a minute - but this time she didn't stop. Tom didn't Un-Invert completely, though - he still had some white iron on him.

Vinia drew back and the Miasma grew once more. "There's nothing more I can do," she admitted with a grimace on her face. "I don't know why, but it won't work anymore past some point." She drew her hands into fists. "I'm… sorry."

Tom shook his head. "Glacia was able to help Merla, right? She just has to do it again with me." Despite the semi-sound logic, something awful continued to bug me - more than the constant whiffs of Miasma Tom was puffing out of his lanterns and wicks.

To be more precise, there were several things I was currently wary of. That Ahri- no, not going to think it, it creeps up my spine if I think of it. That _word_ was dangerous, for reasons I can't really comprehend. It reminds me of the Miasma, but it feels distinct from it nonetheless…

… it feels like the essence of some concept. Darkness, maybe… no, too cliche and inaccurate regardless. Death? Closer, but it's more _final_ than that, somehow…

… I'll figure it out later. Either way, I'll have to investigate it when we're all back in a safe spot.

There were the enslaved prisoners - those Tom described as 'zombies', whatever that meant. Those were creepy… if only I hadn't habituated to the horrifying sigh by now.

No, there was something else…

Then Koga heard something.

"Is that… Guys, I just heard someone crying," Koga relayed. "Do you guys want to check it out, or…"

Strawberry had stopped crying by now, her tears running dry, and no one else was currently crying.

I could hear the tears too.

And while it could be Fake Tears and secretly a trap… there was always the chance of there being another Strawberry, metaphorically. We had to investigate - or at the very least, _I_ had to investigate. This was tripping my danger senses, in strange ways I couldn't really understand.

Running through the hallways of the Mystery Dungeon, we arrived at a line of cell doors. The Pokemon inside were like all the others - braying Night's name like the drones they were.

Except… there were two that weren't.

Two Inverted Pokemon - a Metagross and a Dusknoir - were sitting in a cold, dark, damp cell.

The Mategross waved its peach arms around animatedly, describing what appeared to be a… story? For an Inverted Pokemon, it looked remarkably cheerful and nonviolent, and that's coming from quite possibly the only 'cured' Inverted Pokemon.

Why am I so _envious_?!

The Dusknoir was despondent and silent vacantly listening to what the Metagross was saying. The Dusknoir looked much more like an average Inverted Pokemon, with depression, anger, and mistrust radiating off him in pulses.

Still, the Dusknoir was much calmer than the other Inverted Pokemon I had previously met. The others just bared their teeth and smashed things or attacked things rabidly - he, though, was just very, very sad. He looked with apathy at the Metagross's impression of a crying child.

So _this_ was the source of the sound?

Then Naetle gasped, before leaping toward the bars with a Bite at the ready.

None of us were prepared for such a brash action by the normally sedate Turtwig. However, the bars of the cell the two were in stopped the Bite completely.

Naetle wasn't finished, though. In naught but a few seconds, he had charged a Mega Drain and fired it into the cell. The Drain's energy attached itself to the Dusknoir and steadily began to drain the Dusknoir's meager health.

The Dusknoir, nor the rest of us, managed to react in time.

The Metagross, though, reacted quickly, pulling the energy out of Dusknoir with raw psychic energy, before turning to face Naetle with fury.

"Hey!" The Metagross shouted with a booming yet immature voice. "We were _talking_!"

Naetle was taken aback. "I… what? But… do you know who that is?!" Naetle shouted, looking disturbed. "What he tried to do to - to time?!"

"That was in the past!" The Metagross fervently defended. "Literally! He's been doing his best to repent for it!"

"But - but what he did is unforgivable!" Naetle shouted, standing his ground. Naetle looked at Dusknoir coldly. "You're not going to hurt anyone, Dusknoir - I'll stop you again!"

The Dusknoir… he was someone from the past, from Naetle's old time. From what I can tell, they were enemies.

The Metagross shook his head, again. "Dusknoir wouldn't hurt a fly - he's my best friend, and-"

"Pillar. Stop it." Dusknoir listlessly said, not looking at him. "Naetle… I wish I could say this in a way that you could believe me, but I'm… I'm truly sorry. For what I tried to prevent you from doing."

Naetle didn't budge. "This is another one of your tricks, Dusknoir. Don't bother trying to deceive me."

The Metagross got fired up again. "Dusknoir is one of the greatest Pokémon in the world! He wouldn't lie if-"

"Pillar… please… no…" Dusknoir turned to the Metagross. "Pillar, I'm not sure I can trust myself, not with the Inversion. Don't make false promises, please..."

It was only then that Naetle took a step back. "Inversion?" Then he actually took a good look at Dusknoir. "You were Inverted? When?"

Dusknoir sighed, before choosing his words carefully. "It was a few months ago, Naetle. For some reason, I had time traveled into the future - but many more millennia than I had previously. I had landed in this courtyard, and was soon captured by the Ditto - Henka, I think his name was."

Then Strawberry piped up. "You… you were the Dusknoir?! The one who tried to save me!"

Naetle turned to Strawberry, incredulous. "What are you talking about?"

"When I was first captured," Strawberry recounted, eyes far away. "Dusknoir was still free, I think. Then he battled Henka to try and save me, and then… I don't remember."

"You were in a trance, Strawberry." Dusknoir explained. "He said something - I think it was 'Nighty night'"

Then Strawberry went under an awful transformation. She lost all focus in her eyes and collapsed to the floor. Then she began to moan that awful, awful word repeatedly - 'Night, Night, Night…"

"You - what did you do to her?!" Gel screamed at Dusknoir, spontaneously shooting out jets of ice-cold air.

Dusknoir hastily went back. "She's back under the trance, I think. Night, for some reason, allowed her to switch in and out of a trance, unlike all of her other prisoners. I can get her back to normal, probably."

Gel barely held himself back from striking. "Do it, then."

Dusknoir went to work. "Okay, okay… 'Wakey wakey, eggs and'- no, that wasn't it. 'Rise and shi-'... that wasn't it either… it had something to with daytime, I know that much-"

Upon Dusknoir saying 'Daytime' Strawberry got back up. "G-Gel? What happened?"

"Strawberry!" Gel rushed in for a hug, squishing the shiny. "You're back to normal!"

"Back to normal?" Strawberry sounded surprised. "Did something happen to me?"

Dusknoir stretched. "So 'Nighty night' is for getting her into a trance, and 'Daytime' is for getting her out?" As Dusknoir said this, Strawberry quickly went in and out of the trance.

Gel hissed at Dusknoir. "Stop that!" He covered his sister's ears. "Stop saying those words!"

Those are another three words to add to the 'Taboo Words' list, then.

The Metagross - its name was Pillar, I think - stepped forward. "See! If Dusknoir was so bad, then why did he help that Strawberry girl?"

Thus began another long shouting match between Pillar and Naetle, the rest of us sidelined for the moment. Eventually, though, Dusknoir coughed. "Pillar, I was telling a story?"

Pillar immediately stopped arguing with Naetle and nodded, obediently stepping back from defending Dusknoir to let him finish the story.

"Anyway, as I was saying. Henka had captured me after putting Strawberry back under her spell. Then he took me to this cell, where I met Pillar." He gestured to Pillar, who waved. "Pillar told me about the Inversion Phenomenon and what happens to those Inverted. Pillar had already been Inverted by this point.

"After that, we tried to escape. We figured out that these bars are reinforced by our Miasma. They can only be weakened using Fairy-type moves, which neither of us has access to. Then Henka came around, subdued me with my own traitorous Sableye, and gave me to Night to be Inverted. Then I was thrown back into this cage so they could wait for me to crack."

Dusknoir then sighed. "If you want, you can leave. You're right, Naetle - I don't deserve your forgiveness. Just, please… leave us. I don't wish to trouble anyone anymore."

There was a pregnant silence as we digested what he had said. Finally, Naetle turned around. "We should go," he said listlessly walking out of the corridor and out of sight. "It's not a good idea to stay here for much longer. We might get Captured if we dawdle too much."

A couple of us - Ken, Peng, Gel, and Strawberry - left as well, Strawberry with some reluctance. Alice opened her mouth to say something, but upon seeing Dusknoir's miserable face, she closed her mouth and followed the others out of the corridor. Pillar looked furious at their leaving, but Dusknoir put a hand on him to calm him down.

Koga looked at Dusknoir. "You want forgiveness, don't you?" He challenged. Dusknoir started to deny what Koga said, but Koga barreled on. "You have regrets, but you want to be forgiven nonetheless."

Then Koga left, before shooting one last look at Dusknoir. "It's up to you now."

While he was looking at Dusknoir, something told me Dusknoir wasn't the only one being spoken to.

The ones who were left were Tom, Vinia, and I. Tom looked straight at the two Inverted Pokemon, but his eyes were vacant nonetheless. Vinia looked nervous.

"I'm… sorry, but we need to get a move on." Vinia tugged at us. "Let's go."

Dusknoir nodded. "Don't get left behind - we'll take care of ourselves, one way or another."

Vinia made to leave with us in tow, and I followed her - there was no point in staying behind. But Tom stood his ground, stopping her from moving.

Vinia frowned. "Tom, what are you doing? We have to go save Glacia."

Tom frowned. "I… I don't know why… but we can't just leave them here. We didn't leave Strawberry, and we're not leaving them." He gripped the bars, which pulsed with that awful dark mist. "Vinia… I have an idea… your Fairy-type-"

"Tom, I barely have enough energy to get stop your Inversion. I can't do anything to these bars."

Tom shook his head. "I'm not asking you to break the bars - it's just… I have an idea. A hunch, I think." He turned to me. "Merla, I'll need your help as well. First, can you spit a small ember on me?"

I didn't know what he was going for, but I complied, sending a small flare in his general direction. Tom took the attack with a wince.

"Ugh… so my ability is Flame Body, then… I can work through the pain, though." He turned to Vinia. "Vinia, when I say go, push as much Fairy-type energy through me. Merla, while she does that, fire as many Embers as possible toward the bars. Try to melt it as fast as possible, if you would."

Dusknoir narrowed his eyes. "The bars are reinforced with our Miasma - you can't beat them down with normal attacks." Dusknoir used an Ice Punch on the bars to demonstrate. The Ice Punch shattered against the bars. "See? Nothing."

"That's why I'll take the Miasma away - by force." Tom gripped the bars, and the Miasma on both him and in the bars went wild with excitement. "Ready?"

Vinia tilted her head. "What are you-"

"NOW!" The gas surrounding the bars began to fly into Tom's body, and he started screaming, echoing through the corridor. The two fully-Inverted Pokemon stepped back in shock. "GO!"

His command jolted us into action. Vinia started to pump as much Fairy-type energy into Tom as she dared, shouting her Disarming Voice. I spit as many Embers as possible onto the bars, trying to melt them as fast as possible.

Tom screamed as the Miasma flew into him. The evolution, which the chant was trying to slow, began to resume at a quick pace. Tom glowed with white light as a black wind flew into him from the bars. The bars he was holding ignited from the sheer heat Tom was exuding. Vinia's chant was barely helping to stop it.

Then the bars bent.

Pillar began smashing at the bars with many consecutive Hammer Arms, weakening the cell's structure as fast as possible. With each blow, the bars dented and bent more and more until

 _SNAP!_

The bars, malleable from Tom and my flames, bent too far snapping in half. They immediately tried to reform, but it was too slow - Pillar grabbed the shell-shocked Dusknoir and escaped the prison cell.

Tom let go of the bars, unconscious, and finally fully evolved and Inverted. Miasma leaked from his every movement. He laid on the floor, barely breathing.

Vinia, exhausted, sat on the floor. "We… Tom, when you wake up… you are in for a mouthful…" Vinia wheezed and panted from the exhaustion. She had clearly gone well above her limits with the use of the Fairy-type energy.

Pillar cheered. "Out, out! Finally, we're out!" He shook Dusknoir. "Can you believe it?"

Dusknoir pulled himself together. "I'm… that was incredibly lucky…" He managed. "Will the boy - Tom - be okay?"

"Maybe… it depends on what we can do for him." I mentioned. "Once we rescue Glacia, we'll get rid of the Miasma."

Pillar stared. "Get… rid of it?"

I pointed to myself. "I'm Inverted, but do you sense any Miasma from me?"

Pillar's eyes widened. "You… it doesn't whisper in your ear? Begging you to kill-"

I nodded. "It used to - until Glacia got rid of it. But she's in trouble now - Night kidnapped her this morning."

Dusknoir's eye sharpened. "Then her rescue is a priority. But then what about Tom? He's in no fit condition to continue, but we simply can't leave him here."

Pillar then proceeded to grab Tom and hauled him onto his back. "I'll take him. The Miasma can't harm me any more than it already has and I'm the strongest one here physically." He then proceeded to grab Vinia as well, who was taken off guard. "You need to rest too - you used up too much energy."

Vinia didn't look particularly comfortable resting with so much Miasma surrounding her. Still, she nodded and took the time to form a shield of Fairy-type energy around her.

The three of us - Pillar, Dusknoir, and I - ran as fast as possible through the floor of the Dungeon. We didn't encounter Naetle and the rest of our group - they must have gone on ahead of us. Regrettable, but needed at this point.

* * *

 **Night's Prison 18F**

* * *

 **Night's Prison 19F**

It took a while, but we finally managed to catch up with the other group. Once we met up with them halfway through the nineteenth floor, there was a cacophony of noise.

"You let him free?!" Naetle was nearly frothing from surprise. "Dusknoir tried to end _everything_! He's _dangerous_!"

"And he'll help us right now, Naetle." I interrupted Naetle's probably correct warnings. "He's dangerous, but he'll fight for us - if only to get Glacia to permanently get rid of the Miasma surrounding him."

Naetle grimaced. "But… he's betrayed everyone once before." Naetle turned away. "I'm not talking to any of you. Let's just get Glacia."

For all that I had known him, Naetle seemed to be reliable and trusting. Then again, everyone has a limit on what they'll accept. Naetle has a history with Dusknoir and him trying to end time - whatever that means.

Honestly, for all that I'm familiar with the tale, I have never actually seen 'stopped time', so I don't know how horrific or not it is. Dusknoir wasn't mentioned in the tale, though, even if he was important (according to the two who were actually there when it happened).

Regardless, this sort of development was troubling, for the safety and Glacia and the mission. I'm personally not sure that trusting Dusknoir was the right decision - even if it is the rational thing to do. Intuition and emotions are difficult to untangle.

The rest of the Team didn't have much trouble with the previous inmates. They didn't trust them, but they didn't distrust them either. They would go along with it… for now at least.

The group had swelled to an enormous size now, at twelve people. We didn't have a concrete leader, either - Alice had served that role initially, but her credibility was soon diminished. No one else was accepting the responsibility either. It would make serious coordination difficult - the group splitting in two due to competing interests had shown that in spades.

With only a moderate amount of difficulty, we made it to the stairs. Vinia had gained enough energy to walk on her own and could wield a form of psychic powers again. Everyone else, though, was almost dead on their feet. The dungeon and previous fight had certainly taken their toll.

The stairs were shaped oddly, for some reason. They were ornate rather than the bleak stone staircases we had grown used to. Glowing jewels encrusted the steps, which were lined with gold.

Several constructs were in the final room - a Monster House's worth. We had all geared for a fight - but to our surprise, they had simply parted, leaving the entranceway to the staircase clear.

None of us knew what was going on.

Then Dusknoir spoke. "This is the end of the Dungeon." He said with certainty. "The next floor is the twentieth floor. The Dungeon will release us at that point, and we'll be able to move onward to rescue Glacia."

Naetle glared suspiciously at Dusknoir. "And how would you know that?" He challenged.

"Common sense."

'Common sense' was a weak argument - but Naetle sighed. "Fine," he admitted. "I guessed that, too. Let's take a rest before-"

Whatever Naetle was going to say, it was soon cut short. Constructs appeared from behind us pushing us to the staircase.

We fought against them until one of them spoke.

" _LEAVE… LEAVE… LEAVE…_ "

They wanted us to… leave?

They had wanted something at all?

The other constructs began closing in. " _LEAVE… LEAVE… LEAVE…_ "

"Alright, alright, we get it!" Alice yelled. "No rest for us - we're going, okay?"

We made our way to the staircase. Alice turned back.

"Whatever happens… let's keep going." Alice smiled weakly.

Nobody said anything. The sea of constructs closed in closer.

One by one, we stepped onto the Staircase.

* * *

 **Night's Prison 20F**

I didn't know what I was expecting until that moment.

Maybe it was Night grabbing Glacia and holding her to the wall, forcing her to tell the secret of how she cured me from the Miasma.

Maybe it was Night hypnotizing Glacia, forcing her to turn against us.

Maybe it would be Henka (whatever he looked like) attacking us in a powerful Pokémon form.

We got none of that.

Instead, we received a Piplup running point-blank into our faces, slipping, and falling flat on his face.

As the Piplup got up, Naetle went wide-eyed.

"S-Sky?" Naetle whispered.

The Piplup got up. "H-how's it going, Naetle. Haven't seen you in a while." The Piplup offered a weak smile. "Yeah, it's me"

This was Sky? The magical Piplup that could see across time and space?

Naetle began to tear up. "You're back… you're really, really back…" Naetle nearly tackled Sky with joy, bawling. "I… I… I was so lonely…"

Naetle seemed to ignore Team Ness in its entirety as they reunited. Still, something was… off. Another round of intuition, or was this another 'crying Pokemon'?

Then Koga smashed in with a Quick Attack, knocking Sky far, far away from Naetle.

Naetle turned to Koga, shocked. "Koga, what are you…" Then he grew angry. "Why did you hurt my friend?!" Naetle began to charge an attack, blinded by fury.

"Alice, Imprison him would you?" Koga shot a quick order off to Alice. Alice gave him a bemused look but complied, nailing Naetle to the ground and stopping the attack dead in its tracks.

Koga turned to Sky. "You're not Sky, whoever you are." He challenged. "Something is off about you - how do we know you're Sky and not some Zoroark or Ditto."

Sky slowly got back up, nursing the small injury. "I'm not an imposter!" Alarm bells were ringing off in my head - if Sky was here, he had to be imprisoned at an earlier point. He either escaped… or…

"Use the Dimensional Scream, then," I offered. "Tell us… the geographical location of…" I wracked my head, searching for a proper location. "Where Dusknoir here was born."

It was a long shot, but… if Dusknoir and the other time travelers were enemies, then they wouldn't trust each other implicitly. Information such as birth location and the like wouldn't be shared. With Dusknoir the Ghost-type being an effective and reliable countermeasure against lying (assuming he wasn't secretly evil and trying to attack the real Sky), we would be able to discern if this 'Sky' was real and not an imposter.

Sky slowly nodded. "Okay. I have to touch him, though." He went up to Dusknoir unafraid, open, and welcoming. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Naetle's struggles against the Imprison slow down and come to a stop. Naetle was growing suspicious as well.

Sky held his hand to Dusknoir and concentrated. "Hmmm… hmmm…"

Then Dusknoir smashed Sky with a Thunder Punch - or at least tried to.

A large rocky arm grew out of 'Sky's' head. Sky sighed, then jumped backward an impossible distance.

"As I thought - the Dimensional Scream can't be copied." The Piplup merged and shifted until a Ditto appeared. "Frankly, that was boring. I thought I'd manage to fool you for a bit longer than that. Too bad Mr. Lie Detector over here stopped that early."

Dusknoir scoffed." I was unsure myself… but Sky once activated the Dimensional Scream in front of me - and he hardly sounded as ridiculous as you did then.

"Fair enough." The Ditto stretched and bowed. "Henka, at your service - Pokémon trafficker and mercenary extraordinaire. Truly _delighted_ to remake your acquaintance."

Alice let Naetle go at last, who shakily climbed to his feet. "W-where is he?!" Naetle roared with the passion of seven dying stars. "Where is Sky?!"

"Look over there," Henka shrugged. "He's been here the entire time." Henka pointed behind him. "Hey, Arcuz? Drop the illusion, would you?"

There was a sigh, then an effeminate voice called out from nowhere. "Arcuz, do what he says. There's no point in maintaining a charade anymore."

The air of the room shimmered and shook. We all got on our guard - Vinia most of all, whispering, 'mother'.

It was time.

But we were _sorely outmatched._

Perni and Dram of Team Cruel were here, neither of them looked like they were going to act reasonable or help us. Looking at their neutral faces, they were most likely more of Night's spies within the base.

Captain Falcon stood, a small smile on his lips. "Hello, Team Link, Team Zelda, Team Ness." He then turned to his son and it turned into a sneer. "Ken."

Ken gulped, then a fire entered his eyes. "Dad. You're with her, aren't you?"

"Yes - Mistress Night is wonderful, you know. It's not too late to change your mind," he offered. "She could possibly forgive your transgressions."

Ken got into a fighting stance. "Not going to happen."

"I was afraid of that." The Captain entered a fighting stance. "You're not the easiest person to work with. Your infiltration was a bother - we were going to do the Breaking, and you simply _had_ to interrupt it."

Myga and Kol had appeared as well, looking well off and rested. Kol stretched. "Myga, are you ready for round two?"

Electricity crackled through Myga's fuzz. "I still have some aches and pains from our battle an hour or two ago - this will be… cathartic, even more so than before."

Then she appeared, the kidnapper herself, holding an unconscious Piplup - the real Sky.

Night sighed. "Vinia, _why_ did you have to cause such a large ruckus? If you had simply come along with me, I would-"

Vinia flung a Gravelrock at Night.

Night dodged. "Really? Is that how you're-"

Vinia flung another Gravelrock, then got up. "You talk too much, mother." Vinia's eyes glowed a light blue. "It's time for battle."

Then there was a frenzy of movement. Each member of our group went to fight Night's minions.

Team Link went back to fight Kol, while Team Zelda fought Myga again. Unfortunately, it wasn't looking too fortuitous on that front. The two traitors had been rejuvenated by their rest outside of the Mystery Dungeon and were being aided by the fresh Perni and Dram - Rax's two teammates.

Both two on two battles were hard-fought, but nonetheless, Team Link and Zelda were taking an incredible amount of damage.

Captain Falcon was fighting his son - and it was the most one-sided battle I had ever seen. Ken barely managed to dodge his father's strikes - and Captain Falcon didn't even look like he was trying.

"You're too slow… too weak… powerless…" Captain Falcon chuckled. "But then again, if you had any more use as a Pokemon, you would already be in Night's service."

Ken got up, panting. "I'm… not going to lose here!" Ken charged with a flying kick, only to be batted aside with ease.

"You're hopeless." Captain Falcon surmised. "You're emotional, illogical, stupid, overly-attached…"

"SHUT UP!" Ken roared, blazing. "JUST! SHUT! UP!"

"Make me."

Then Ken glowed a bright white, form morphing and shifting, and the Captain smiled.

"Took you long enough." The Captain stretched a little bit more. "Give me a fight I can enjoy, can't you?"

As Ken the Combusken and Captain Falcon battled, the other fights raged on. Dusknoir was facing Henka, who looked to be itching for a challenge. The two soon entered a pitched battle, Henka constantly shifting and morphing to combat Dusknoir's battle strategies.

Pillar, on the other hand, was facing Arcuz, a Zoroark who had been hiding the entirety of the enemy. It was clear neither of them had much experience in dealing with a foe. The two were somewhat evenly matched, if only because they missed half of their attacks at all times.

While Pillar was fighting, Strawberry was taking care of the unconscious Tom. She mostly just pulled him out of the way of incoming attacks.

I was shaken out of my idle musings, though, when a Shadow Ball came a little too close for comfort.

Naetle, Vinia, and I were fighting Night - and while it wasn't as one-sided as Ken versus Captain Falcon (who was still dominating easily, despite Ken's timely evolution), it wasn't a simple battle either. Naetle could gain ground fast, blowing his way past Night's psychic defenses - but whenever he got too close, Night would simply use the unconscious Sky as a shield, forcing Naetle to back off.

Vinia traded blows with Night, psychic waves buzzing through the air. It looked like neither of them were capable of damaging each other - each time an attack veered too close for comfort, either would Teleport out of the attack, forcing me and Naetle to reposition ourselves.

Because of that, I couldn't lay any traps without endangering Naetle and Vinia. I tried attacking Embers and String Shots, along with some Take Downs - but I simply couldn't make my way past her barrier. In the end, I was forced to play a defensive and supportive game, intercepting Night's attacks as she released them.

Ultimately, we weren't in the best of positions.

More than that, though, I felt pangs of sadness run through me. Glacia was nowhere to be found. In other words, we must have passed her at some point in the dungeon. We had left her behind, and she was most likely Captured at this point.

We had let her down.

Then, a scarily familiar chuckling rang through the room, and an awful feeling crept up my spine.

"Now, don't go around thinking that, Merla." One by one, the battles came to a halt as a strange voice echoed around the large room we were all fighting in. "There's no way _I_ could be captured by a Mystery Dungeon."

Then she appeared, on a perch that I didn't see before. Judging from the surprised looks of everyone else in the room, they hadn't sensed her either.

Glacia.

An Inverted Glaceon.

Glacia looked down upon me with a cold smirk. "You know, Merla, you must have tried so _hard_ to get to me." She stretched out a paw. "But you know, you're late. You're _far too late_."

My heart stopped. "Wha… what happened?"

Glacia smirked. "Ask Night - she's the one who did this to me." Glacia yawned. "But please, continue. Your empty struggles are _pleasing_ , for lack of a better word."

All of the people in the room looked at Night - even her own subjects.

Night, though, looked straight at Glacia. "I didn't do this to you - you did it to yourself. I had nothing to do with your creation."

Glacia snorted. "Glacia was in a dangerous position, you know. Either she was to turn, or Sky was. Glacia chose to enter the darkness to rid you of your leverage - and in doing so brought me forth. Creation? As if."

A strange pulse was running through my ears.

"You're not her," I stated, surprising myself. "What are you - another impostor? A Zorua or Ditto? An Glaceon Night Inverted-"

Glaica laughed. "As if. No, this is your friend's body, don't worry? In fact… let me show you."

Her body collapsed, as though it was a puppet and its strings were cut. Then, slowly, she got back up again.

"Agh… why… does everything hurt so much?" Glacia complained. My heart skipped a beat.

"Lady Glacia!" Ignoring the various enemies around us, I ran toward Glacia without pause.

Glacia stepped back. "Merla, what are you doing-" Suddenly, Glacia collapsed again and I stopped in my tracks.

Her body rose again, but the malevolent aura returned. "I think that was enough of her, for now. Now, do you believe me when I say that I'm Glacia." The being inhabiting her body smirked. "Or am I… 'just a Ditto'?"

"Let her go!" I roared, climbing the wall with well-placed String Shots. My yell jolted everyone back into action - the spectacle was over, for now. The fight resumed.

Sky had finally woken up. Upon seeing Naetle and the rest of the situation, he quickly joined the battle on our side. Other than that, the battle continued as it had before…

… except that I was facing the… the _thing_ that had inhabited Glacia's body. That being, in its taunting, told me that Glacia was still inside - and that I could rescue her!

All I had to do was beat the being possessing her back.

It wasn't easy, though. The possessor had all of Glacia's skill, and then some. She managed to redirect all of my attacks, although I had managed to get some damage on her (I would definitely have to apologize for that later).

None of my traps and strategies were working, though. I routinely laid String Shot traps on the ground and covered them so that the possessor wouldn't see them. I would remember but it most likely wouldn't. Yet whenever Glacia's body stepped on the traps, they would fail to spring.

In fact, they were missing _entirely_! When I checked on them, they were completely gone. How was the possessor managing to get rid of them, without my knowledge?

The possessor laughed as the battle raged below. "You know, while you waste your time fighting me, your friends are dropping like flies."

I took a spare second to verify what the possessor was saying during our battle. Sure enough, and defense we were mustering was falling quickly.

Even with his evolution, Ken was still being beaten black and blue by his father. Pillar had defeated the Zoroark, Arcuz, eventually, but Henka had quickly disposed of him and was making short work of Dusknoir. Team Link and Team Zelda were on their last legs - the refreshed Myga and Kol were too much for them to handle, not to mention their helpers in Perni and Dram.

While Sky was definitely helping in the battle against Night, he simply wasn't enough. Naetle was too weak to help in any great amount, with Vinia even less able. Soon enough, it was practically Sky fighting against Night by himself, firing Whirlpool upon Whirlpool to tear down her shields.

I brought myself back to my own fight at hand. "They're not as important," I told her brusquely.

The possessor seemed surprised. "And here I thought they were your friends? Are you _abandoning_ them in their time of need?"

"No. I'm here to help Glacia, and nothing else. They're here for the same reason - we wouldn't have it any other way."

The possessor was silent. Then an awful and cruel smirk cracked itself onto her face.

"If that's what you're here for… then fine. I'll rob even that hope from you."

An awful feeling entered my stomach. It was time to end it before the possessor did anything worse. I charged, ready for the final blow…

… only to fall flat on my face. I turned and saw my body glued to the ground, the rock merging in with my body.

"Yes, you were getting tiring. I needed to stop you from moving, and this was the best solution by far." Then, curiously, rocks appeared around Glacia's feet, holding her fast to the ground.

"You'll have ten seconds before her death, Merla. Choose wisely."

The rocks on the wall behind her body shifted and shook, before falling flat. This effect continued up the wall. Then a strange bladed instrument appeared on the wall of the room we were fighting in.

The possessor smirked. "I can always inhabit another body, you know - and I'm tired of this Glaceon body. Might as well rid myself of it." My heart stopped.

"Goodbye, Merla. Let the axe fall."

Glacia's body collapsed again - and the axe fell.

…

…

…

It was a nice life, I guess. I had some good times… reading with Glacia in the library… training… food was a pleasure.

The Miasma tore everything from me at birth - and Glacia returned it all with a smile on her face.

I could have never paid her enough for what she did for me.

And I'm _NOT_ going to sit here while she dies.

"Mer...la?" Glacia's wonderful voice echoed, confused.

"Thank you… for everything."

The axe was falling so slowly, so very, very slowly… but that was a trick of my mind. It was moving at a normal speed. At the velocity the axe was moving… there was no space behind it. I couldn't redirect it.

I grabbed it with a String Shot.

There's only one direction it could go to. One Pokemon it would hit… if I didn't do anything. Any other thing I could do… would simply put her in more danger. The possessor has forced my hand - Glacia's life… or mine.

I reeled it in.

The axe flew toward me.

…

…

…

* * *

(Glacia)

Merla's bisected body fell to the ground. Somehow, in one stroke, that sharp hunk of metal...

"M-Merla?" There was no answer.

This had to be an illusion. There was nothing else it could be...

Demonic laughter echoed around in my mind as the blood pooled. My friend's empty visage stared at me.

I… what…

No… how…

Then control was ripped from me again. The rocks that had trapped my paws melted into nothingness, as the awful thing controlling me moved around once more.

"You know, she was an _eyesore_ ," The thing puppeting my mouth uttered. "She wore my colors, though she was my enemy. Such a thing… _irritated_ me." The possessor shoved Merla off the perch where he had been battling Merla.

She landed with a quiet squelch. I felt the need to throw up - except that I couldn't, not with this abomination moving my body against my will.

"Now, the boy, on the other hand - he'll be much more appealing." The possessor leaped down as well, landing in the thick of the battle.

And where we landed…

Strawberry shrunk back, terrified of my, of the possessor's visage.

"If you value your life, I would suggest that you don't stick around." The possessor off-handedly said. "Nothing personal, but I don't want someone like that parasite wearing my colors."

"W-what?" Strawberry asked, terrified and confused. "What are you talking about?"

Then blades appeared in the walls, spinning at high speeds. "These are the weapons that killed that Larvesta girl over there." The possessor pointed to Merla's corpse, which organs were slowly falling out of. The longer the possessor looked, the more the blood in stomach roiled. "It won't be nearly so pretty when it happens to you."

Please… no…

While Strawberry was an incredibly kind girl, she also had a survival instinct. I have never seen anyone run away as fast as possible.

Soon enough, the possessor had full access to Tom's body, which looked to be in great gasping pain.

"The battle within the mind continues… let's give Tim an edge, then."

The possessor breathed long and hard. From my mouth spouted torrents of pitch black Miasma, which coiled and curled around Tom's prone body.

Then Tom rose - a fully Inverted Lampent.

"Who… are you?" Then my heart stopped. Somehow, someway… that sounded nothing like Tom.

"You are Tim, correct? Not Tom?" The possessor asked. "I would hate to have awakened the wrong soul."

'Tom' shook his head. "No, not at all." He fell into a bow. "Because of the deal, I've been trapped in my body for… for so long. Thank you."

The possessor was silent, before falling into a smirk. "Tim… I know the being that did this to you. The Ruler... do you want revenge against him?"

Tom - no… this wasn't him. Tim nodded. "More than anything else… death would have been preferable. Now that I have left the prison… his fall is all that I wish."

"Very well. Join me, Tim, and he will fall." The possessor offered a paw.

Tim snorted as he extended one of his posts in kind. "I am infected by your Miasma - I never had a choice in the matter, did I?"

As they shook limbs, the possessor snorted. "No, but I don't mind cooperation. For now, pretend to be on Night's side."

Tim nodded. "Of course." The Inverted Lampent then left.

What… what happened…?

Why is everything falling apart?

As the possessor spread his evil, the battle came to a conclusion. Peng was the first to fall, exhausted. Koga was next, electrocuted to unconsciousness. Gel took too much damage, falling as well. The last to fall was Alice, fighting to the point where she was hurting herself to damage the traitors.

Henka had finally managed to beat Dusknoir and Pillar. The two fought hard and strong - but Henka, transforming into a large Houndoom, managed to get the drop on them. Even though they were trying their hardest to rise, it was clear they wouldn't be able to anytime soon.

Ken was… injured. It would be better not to describe what his father had done to him.

Vinia had retreated, a fearful look on her face. Sky and Naetle had managed to bring Night to her knees, then were attacked mercilessly by her forces while Night recovered.

Naetle fell, then Sky.

"You know, Night, you could have left some for me." Tim surveyed the wreckage of a room. "It's not that polite to take all of the battles - I'd have liked to fight as well."

Night turned to Tim in surprise. "Are you…" Her eyes narrowed. "You aren't the Litwick boy. Who are you-"

Tim fell to the ground laughing - an empty soulless laugh. Team Zelda came back to consciousness, looking at Tim in askance.

"Tom?" Koga asked, voice soft. "What's… what's with you?"

Tim wiped a tear from his eyes. "Oh… oh, that's rich. I'm not the Litwick boy… no, I _am_ him. You're meeting the real him for the first time - not that amnesiac parasite." Tim got up. "Tim the Lampent, at your service."

Alice got up, in pain. "T-TIM?!" She screamed, trying to near him. "Are you…"

Tim turned to Alice. "Oh, hello… sister."

You could hear a pin drop in the room.

"Took you long enough to recognize me. All those months had passed… I was trying to talk to you, begging for your help… and in the end, what do I get? A pretentious braggart teaching the parasite how to fight."

Tim turned away from his heartbroken sister. "Consider ourselves enemies." He finally said.

"W...what?" Alice asked, uncomprehending. "What are you…"

Tim fell into another formal bow. "Night, would you accept me as your servant?"

Night fell silent. Then…

"No. You have another role to play, and it isn't as one of my pawns." She admitted with a grimace on her face. "My father… he wishes to 'return' to what it once was."

Tim grinned. "All the better."

Night nodded. "All the better. I suppose that it is time for us to leave, then." She faced her servants. "Come here for Teleportation."

Was this… how it was really going to end?

Alice tried to get up. "Tim!" Then Kol stepped and stomped on her, causing her to cry out in pain.

Tim did nothing.

Night's forces gathered, mostly uninjured compared to our decimated forces. Night smiled.

"A perfect victory," she idly commented. "I honestly can't think of a better way for this to have ended." She kicked Merla's corpse. "Well, except for this ugly thing."

Until that moment, I have never wanted to kill quite so badly.

Henka stretched. "Night… there is _one_ thing that could make this victory sweeter." Then Henka took a look at me, of all people.

Night turned to Henka, interested. "Really? What?"

Henka adopted a hateful smile. "The princess's death." He then leaped at me, before anyone could react.

Even though we were going to die, the possessor felt no panic - only a… mild interest?

Henka morphed into a spear of pink fluid, shooting toward my esophagus. With a wet _plunk_ , it tore a hole into my throat.

"Goodbye, princess."

Was this… it?

… why wasn't I dying?

Henka attempted to retract the pink fluid he had stabbed me with but found that he couldn't.

"Thank you, Henka." The possessor told him. "You will be much more useful than she ever was." The possessor's mind began to flow out of mine. I found myself returning to control, my neck wound healing. Somehow, I had also returned from being a Glaceon - I had 'de-evolved' in a sense.

Henka screamed in agony, the color of his fluid vacillating between pinkish lavender and putrid green. His form kept on transforming, from a Gardevoir to a Dragonite to a Roserade to a Houndoom to a Metagross to a Dusknoir to…

Soon, though, the transformations stopped, and Henka stopped screaming in pain. His fluids were now a gray - a perfect gray if that was possible.

Henka opened his eyes, and malevolence stared out into the world. Then, puppeteering his mouth, the possessor spoke. "Strange… in trying to kill me, he has only made me stronger." The fluid undulated. "What a mistake. He has paid _dearly_ for his arrogance."

I crawled to my feet. "You… you mons…" I tried to gather energy for a Shadow Ball but collapsed instead.

The possessor's arm transformed into the arm of a Dusknoir. A large Shadow Ball, crackling with black electricity, fired toward me. Once it hit me, I could barely stay conscious, with the amount of negative energy burning inside of me.

The possessor turned to Tim. "Now that she's dealt with, would you like me to rid you of your parasite?"

"If at all possible, then please do as you wish." Tim was eager to nod in agreement. "Please give _Tom_ the most amount of pain imaginable."

The possessor smiled. "Of course." He formed another spear of fluid, this one gray. "Hold your breath."

He stabbed Tim with the spear. A strange white light appeared from within Tim, which shone throughout the room.

It was… Tom?

Then the possessor released a load of Miasma, which ate away at Tom's light. Soon, his last vestiges were burned away.

The last traces of Tom were… gone…

Tim sighed. "Oh, it's so _good_ to be rid of him."

Night interrupted. "What did you do?" She shouted, alarmed. "What did you do to Henka, and to Tim? How did you revive Tim in the first place? Answer me!"

The possessor transformed into a colorless Gardevoir. "It seems that our partnership is at an end, Night. Goodbye, and I wish HUMANITY all the luck. As for me... I have a time fairy to find, and I'm too tired to stick around."

In a sickening crack, the possessor's head turned all the way around to look at me. "I'll come back for you… eventually." With a pop… the monster disappeared.

Night screamed. "Gragh! Of _course_ he reneged on our agreement… what's that sound?"

The prison was shaking and rumbling. A piece of the ceiling fell to the floor.

Henka's - now the possessor's - voice echoed throughout the room. "A parting gift. Good luck escaping."

Night cursed. "Everyone to me!"

All of Night's forces leaped to her side. With a large pop and a flash of light, Night and her entourage escaped the wreckage.

Now we were all left in the crumbling prison, about to die.

"Guys!" Vinia screamed, and everyone looked at her on the verge of panic. "We… I think I can Teleport everyone out now!"

There was a mad rush to Vinia, as those who were unconscious were dragged to her side.

Vinia concentrated hard for a few seconds, trying to Teleport - then fell to tears. "I… I can't do it! I'm not strong enough!"

Then her bag ripped, and an Everstone fell out.

Vinia stared at it. "How long have I been…" Then her eyes hardened. "If I had…" She threw the Everstone as hard as she could into the rubble.

With a blinding flash of light and a three seconds long transformation, Vinia the Kirlia appeared into the world.

"Guys... let's go."

With a flash of light… we were gone.

* * *

"This is a nightmare… this wasn't supposed to happen."

"But father, what can we do about it."

"I am _not_ your father. Don't call me that."

…

"How can we rectify the situation?"

"... well, it isn't _completely_ hopeless, father."

"And why not?"

"I saved their souls."

"But… that's going against the natural order."

" _Everything_ is now going against the natural order."

"... fine. Put her into a Drone and him…"

"Into another Drone?"

"No, if we had done that before we wouldn't have needed the Litwick boy. He's incompatible."

"Then who?"

"..."

"... no, you can't be serious, father."

"You are strong enough, and you will be more compatible with him than the Drones."

"But… but…"

"You were right, though - suppressing the original soul was a mistake. That led to grudges and antipathy. I will give you the option to talk to him, and if he so wishes, you may trade places."

"... father, it's my _freedom_ and _autonomy_!"

"We have no other choice!"

"But… but… can't you create a custom Drone for him? One that will be compatible? Or… or make another deal!"

"Creating a custom Drone like that will take too much time, and you saw what happened to the last deal!"

"Father… I…"

"Please… you are our only option…"

"... what if he wishes to deny me my freedom? If he doesn't listen to me? If he doesn't develop his powers?"

"Then all is lost."

"... fine. I accept."

"Thank you."


	18. 18 - A New Adventure

(Peng)

It would have been wonderful if we had all escaped together - together, we would have been able to figure out a master plan to defeat Night or attack that strange being that had possessed Glacia and Henka, or anything else we needed to do. Unfortunately, fate took a turn for the difficult.

Vinia's teleport… it had separated us, quite neatly, I might add. Even with the Evolution that she had gone through at the last minute, she wasn't strong enough to teleport all of us the entire way there.

I didn't know about the others, or what happened to them… but a second after Vinia pulled off the teleport, only Alice, Ken, Vinia, and I remained.

The four of us landed painfully in some grassy plain in the middle of nowhere. Vinia had immediately fallen unconscious in an awkward position as we tried to get our bearings.

Alice blinked as she pulled herself up. "Where is everyone?"

I got up. "I don't know. Actually, where _are_ we?" The surroundings were completely unfamiliar to me.

"Why should I know? Ask Vinia! She brought us here, after all." As Ken slowly picked himself up, Alice went over to Vinia and poked her prone form. "Hey, Vinia! Wake up! We have some questions for you!"

Ken slowly got up, groaning. "Alice, she's not going to get up like that. Just wait for her to get up on her own time."

Alice sat down, groaning. "Right, right…" She leaned her head on a rock as she rested. "Ugh… my head hurts so much…" She looked at me. "Can one of you two figure out where we are right now?"

I sighed. "I'll go. Ken, can take care of these two while I'm gone?" The Combusken nodded, sitting down.

Ten minutes later, and I was starting to get a little angry, having found absolutely nothing but more plain. Another five minutes, and I found nothing. A little ticked off, I walked back to where we landed.

Alice was lying on the ground, cradling her head in her hands. "Oh… why… why does it hurt so much?"

I shot a glance at Ken. "What's wrong with her?"

"I don't know, Peng." He shrugged. "She's been like this for the past ten minutes."

I sighed in aggravation. "So… any progress on Vinia, then?"

Said girl finally got up, groaning herself. "What… what happened?" She looked around. "Where is everybody? Where are we?"

"I don't know. You teleported us… but they aren't here." I answered. "I'm as clueless as you are about where we are, though - are you sure you don't recognize this place?"

Vinia nodded. "I've _never_ been here before." Vinia slowly got up, wincing. "Ugh… do you guys have any food? I'm starving."

Ken looked inside my bag, which was lying next to where I had landed. "Nothing inside - we ate it all in the dungeon." His stomach rumbled. "And you're not the only one hungry."

Vinia groaned as her stomach moaned even louder. Still, she got up. "I'm going to teleport us to the middle of Jeden - we can get some food once we get there."

We all huddled around her, even Alice, who looked like she would rather be anywhere else. With a flash of light, we were gone.

* * *

A split second later, we arrived near the Base in Jeden. I immediately went to get us some food. Since the others were incapacitated with headaches and stomachaches, they couldn't go very far.

After buying some food with the pocket change in my bag, I brought it to the alleyway, where I fed it to Vinia and Ken. A few minutes later, they had recovered their energy - though by now, the sun was falling on this long, long day.

Alice was still moaning. "Ugh… what… why does everything hurt so much…?"

Vinia looked at me. "What's wrong with her?"

I shrugged. "I don't know - at some point she just started having this weird headache."

Vinia looked at the Base. "I think I'll be able to treat her inside the Base - though, you guys are going to have to help me with her." Ken and I nodded.

We took Alice - who was having trouble standing - and brought her inside the Base. It was silent, eerily silent. We didn't find any Pokémon up and about, since all of them were off with the Breaking.

Soon enough, we arrived at the medical wing of the Base. Alice was put on a bed as Vinia took a bottle of powder and mixed it in with a strange pink liquid.

She handed the new solution over to Alice. "Here's a draught of ground White Herb and Persim Extract. This should help you with the pain."

Alice took the solution and gulped it down greedily. "Ugh… thanks, I feel a lot better now." She smiled gratefully. "I… I… "Alice coughed. "I was wrong. And… and I did something awful when I attacked you this morning."

Vinia was silent as she handed Alice some water.

"I… I don't know what came over me. I was… today, I was reckless. And… and rude… and… I've just been an awful Pokémon lately." Alice coughed. "I'm… sorry."

Vinia sighed. "I've gotten over it - the injuries are bruises right now, and they're nothing compared to the headaches I've gotten from all this teleporting and what my mother did to me."

Alice shook her head. "No… I…" She turned to Ken. "I.. was awful to you, too… last night, you were so worried and tired and sick… and I forced you to confront your friends. I forced you to choose - I put you through such a hard choice."

Ken couldn't look at Alice after that.

I was getting tired. "Look, Alice, if you're so sorry, then just be a better person. Enough apologizing, you can do that all day. Right now, we have to find out where everyone else is."

Vinia sighed, looking out the window. "Yeah…" She turned from it. "Moping around here isn't going to help anybody. I'm going to teleport to the outside of the prison, and try to see if anyone is there."

Vinia closed her eyes - but then she gasped and cursed.

"Something… something is blocking my teleportation!" She exclaimed. Our eyes widened as she continued. "I tried teleporting to the prison, but something stopped me. If I try to teleport anywhere else, I get the exact same thing!"

Alice sat up, recovering slightly. "What does that mean?" She asked. "What could be stopping us right now?"

Then we heard a strange buzz outside, and the chatter of indistinct voices.

"Hide, now!" Vinia hissed, and we immediately fled into cover. Ken hid in one of the cupboards, Alice went up to the ceiling and pretended to be a lamp, and I…

… I hid under one of the beds. It wasn't the highest point of my career, by any measure.

Vinia, on the other hand, tried to act as normally as possible, ready to greet whoever came through the door.

Then…

"Shift?" Vinia exclaimed. "Is that… is that you?"

"Vinia?!" I peeked out from under the bed. A Klang faced us - one that immediately rushed towards Vinia. "I haven't seen you in ages! And… you've evolved?!"

Vinia nodded. "Where have you been?!" She interrogated. "Team Ness and I have been looking for you during the past month!"

Shift sighed. "I've been busy. You remember the final exam, right - how everyone that got a bye didn't get to graduate into an actual Venturing Team?"

That was the first time I'd ever heard of such a thing, but Vinia nodded. "I was angry that I had spent so much time learning to be a Venturer, only to get shoved into permanently being a medic. I mean, I _enjoy_ being a medic, but still - it hurts."

Shift nodded. "I understand completely. I'm stuck on managing electricity usage - that means generating as much electricity as the Base needs." Shift sighed. "I…I still miss you guys, in all honesty. We're stuck underground at all times, too - we don't get to go above ground much."

"That… that's awful…" Vinia said. "Still… why are you here right now, then, if you're stuck underground so often."

"With everyone gone on the Breaking, nobody really needs to have the electricity monitored. It's been a vacation for us, mostly." Shift explained.

He then looked around. "I, personally, like looking at some books or maintaining my skills - you know, to stay sharp." He sighed. "Still… those Magnemite, they've been _really_ pushy."

Something strange flickered across Vinia's face. "Magnemite?"

Shift nodded. "Yeah - for the past hour or so, some Magnemite have been in the Base. Apparently, they've been looking for some outlaw that escaped the prison. They told us to leave them alone while they search."

Panic blossomed on Vinia's - and my - face. "Oh, no… oh, no…"

"Vinia, what's wrong with you?" Shift asked, concern flickering across his gears. "Why do you look so scared?" Then a pensive look crossed his face. "Why are you here, anyway? I thought almost everyone in the Base went to the Breaking - wouldn't you be there… too…?"

Then realization crossed Shift's face. "You're the one the Magnemite are looking for." He said, in confusion. "But… why? I can tell that you're not a criminal - you'd have to be really dumb to say otherwise."

Alice shifted minutely on the ceiling.

"It… it's complicated. Let's just say that a few of my friends and I ticked off some _very_ important people." Vinia looked at our hiding spots. "Guys, I think it's safe for you to come out."

The three of us came out of our hiding spots, surprising Shift. "Were you here the whole time?"

Did Shift… did he really not see us?

"Er… yes," I answered. "But we really need to be going - we can't let them capture us."

Shift was silent. "I… I don't know what you guys did, to get yourself on the bad side of the law." He finally admitted. "I'm a little worried for you guys, too."

He then looked at Ken. "Except for him - I still hate you. I still remember all the awful things you did to me."

Ken looked away in shame.

"But anyway, regardless of how much I hate Ken, I don't think that you guys should go to prison." Shift started walking out of the medic wing. "Come on - I'm going to lead you guys underground. I'm pretty sure there's a secret passageway or two down there."

Vinia nodded gratefully. "That would be really great."

Shift led us through the halls of the Base, winding his way down farther and farther. Eventually, we reached a point where I had never been before - and judging by the others' reaction, neither had they.

Shift opened a door for us. "Here's the electrical room."

Large wires crossed the ceiling, emitting sparks every so often. As they crawled to the ground, the wires gained a sort of plastic sheath around them, becoming cables that littered the ground underneath our feet. They were all connected to large generators that were puffing and smoking.

Shift went up to one and started spinning, generating a small electric charge. The electricity zapped and crackled into the generator, causing it to light up a little bit. The energy started traveling into the wires, causing them to glow in the cables underneath our feet and in the ceiling.

Shift turned to us. "And that's what I do every day, all day long." He sounded rather morose. "It… it sucks… but it's my job."

Shift then led us to the back room, where a large door was. "I don't know where this leads, but I've never seen it open. It probably opens from the other side, too."

Shift started walking away, looking at us. "I don't know what you guys did… but I'm going to take my chances. You guys are good people - except for Ken, he's a jerk."

Shift sighed. "It was… nice knowing you, Vinia. Give Naetle my regards when you see him. I'll be cheering you guys on regardless. You guys are my friends, after all."

Vinia nodded. "Thanks, Shift."

Shift left. "Don't mention it."

Then he was gone.

Vinia turned back to us. "Shift is a good friend," she mentioned. "If nothing else, he's dependable."

"That's great and all," I answered. "But… why are we here, when we should be trying to get out of the Base and back to everyone else?"

Vinia looked at me. "Something tells me that if there are Magnemite looking for us, they probably have the Base surrounded. If so, then this back entrance - if Shift is right about all this - is our only shot at getting out of here."

Vinia's eyes glowed as she looked at the door that Shift had shown them. A few seconds later, they stopped glowing. "Still… I can't open this door, for some reason. My powers won't work on it."

"Allow me," Alice answered, before phasing through the wall. She then opened the door from the other side. "Come on, guys."

We walked through the long and dark passageway that led from the door. As we walked, the walls looked more and more worn, as if no one had been in them for decades.

Then the tunnel began slanting upwards as if returning to the surface. Within a final ten feet, we made it all the way through to one final door. Pushing it open, we arrived at the outside of the city.

Alice looked at Vinia. "Can you teleport again?"

"I'll try." Vinia closed her eyes in concentration again. With a pop, she disappeared.

"... so now what do we do?" Alice asked, to which I shrugged.

"We wait, I guess, for Vinia to find them." I sat down, facing Ken. "So… who was that Klang, Ken?"

"Oh, him? Shift was an old friend of Team Ness and Vinia's." Ken answered. "He was trying to be a Venturer, just like we all were."

"So what happened?" Alice asked, sitting down. "He didn't seem like the type to fight, but if he wanted to be a Venturer… he didn't seem like much of a coward, either."

Ken snorted. "You'd be surprised. He was a bit of a wuss before Naetle helped him out. He didn't give up, though, if that was what you were asking. He and a bunch of our classmates got their hopes dashed by Mr. Pix.

"They had a bunch of us go through byes during the tournament. Vinia was one of them. Everyone that got byes didn't get to be Venturers and were instead put to menial work around the Base."

"That… that doesn't make sense. Why wouldn't they just hire some civilians to do that?"

Ken looked at me in surprise. "They didn't do that for your classes?"

"No!" Alice and I answered. Ken looked befuddled.

"Then why were they sent to work?" Ken asked, more to himself. "I mean… yeah, they spent so much time training them to be Venturers… to only use them as living generators…"

Ken shook his head. "Honestly, I'm not sure…" He sighed. "A lot of things… a lot of things have changed recently. I'm still… I'm worried about what's going to happen."

"Look, Ken, it's okay if you're worried," Alice answered. "I'd be surprised if you weren't worried. Honestly, I'm a little worried myself. Night, Captain Falcon… whoever that weird grey Ditto guy was… they're all bad pieces of work. And they're all after us"

"Yeah. I'm a little worried myself, but they're not invincible - none of them are. And none of them are immortal, either. Sooner or later, all of them are going to fall to the passage of time - and then, slowly, ever so slowly, the world will fix itself."

"So, in a way, I'm worried. They're frightening like that, after all. But everything eventually falls, Ken - they will too. What we should do is make sure that they don't hurt too many people."

Ken slowly nodded. "Yeah, I think I'm getting what you're saying." He sighed. "Still… I can't help it… they…" He fell silent.

Alice, though, was frowning. "Say, it's taken a lot of time for Vinia to come back. Do you think something has happened to her?"

Almost as if on cue, Vinia reappeared in their midst, frowning.

"What happened, Vinia? Where is everyone else?"

Vinia sighed. "I… I don't know," she admitted. "They weren't back at the prison or anything… so there goes our last chance at finding them." She admitted. "We'll have to bump into them or something."

"That's it?!" Alice asked. "Didn't you… didn't you find anything?!"

Vinia sighed. "I… no, there was nothing." She finally admitted. "All that was there were the ruins of the prison and… the corpses."

"The corpses?!" Alice asked, eyes widening. "Whose corpses?!"

"Garden and Sheath's - they were my older brothers," Vinia answered. "They were Gallade - and they loved my mother with all their heart."

"... so she wasn't above hypnotizing her own family?" Alice asked. "That isn't too surprising, but…"

But Vinia shook her head. "Night never bothered hypnotizing us. She raised us herself, thinking that we would do as we were taught. She didn't treat us too badly, either - even if she tried to make us do awful things. I ran away because of morality… but they didn't. Either they didn't think what she did was as awful as I did, or… or they loved her too much to care."

"Either way… they're gone now. Night didn't bring them to the battle, but they were in the Dungeon before it collapsed. Now… now all that's left is their corpses and the squashed bodies of all the other inmates we didn't save."

The group we had formed was silent. "I… I'm sorry, Vinia." I finally said. "It must hurt rather badly."

Vinia shook her head. "No, we weren't particularly close, considering the atrocities they committed for mother's sake… but still…" She sighed. "Honestly, the one I feel more sad about is… is Merla, actually. Even if we've spent most of our time as enemies in the classroom, we became something close to friends near the end."

Alice was silent, as she turned to look away. "Yeah… Merla…" She sat down. "She… she wasn't the only one to fall during the battle."

Vinia looked sorrowful. "You're talking about Tom, right?"

Alice didn't look at her. "... you've told me the story of your siblings," she finally said. "Do you mind if I get around to telling you about me and my siblings?"

Vinia nodded, sitting down. "Go ahead - we're not in any rush right now, after all."

Alice nodded. "Thanks." Alice began to talk, a faraway look appearing on her face as she did.

"Well… we were born in Ring 6, in Fertis Village. It… it was a nice, small village. We - my siblings and I - were little miracles in the village, as we could always use an extra pair of hands or whatever. Only a week or two after we were born, we were deemed ready to help out, even if it was just to cry to warn the others of a wild Pokémon attack.

"I was born four years or so before my twin brothers were. I was ecstatic when Mom revealed she had laid a pair of eggs - two little brothers or sisters!" Alice smiled weakly. "They were excited, too… everyone in Fertis was happy for the new births, congratulating Mom."

"Then they hatched… and everything went to hell."

"What happened?" I asked, drawn into the story. "What were they like?"

"They were born Inverted," Alice answered. "Two twin brothers, with wax as black as the night and an aura of a monster, they were a dream turned into a nightmare. For some reason, my parents didn't seem to mind all that much - in fact, they became really, really weird after the twins were born."

"Weird?" Vinia asked. "What do you mean?"

"They stopped talking to our neighbors… they didn't complete their responsibilities… they cut themselves off from society…" Alice sighed. "And they started ignoring me completely. I was only four when this happened, you know. It was… disconcerting, to say the least."

"So then what happened?"

"I did the best I could. We don't need food that much - we only farmed to sell to other Pokémon. I continued farming if only to raise more money. The other Pokémon in Fertis still treated me mostly as usual, some offering to raise me away from the rest of my family. I didn't want to, because…"

"Because?"

"Because if nothing else, I still wanted the family. Even if… even if they made me shiver in fear every time I was near them, I still wanted my brothers."

"I was the one who named them - Mom and Dad didn't seem to care much about their names after they were born. I eventually named them Tim and Tam, if only because it was easy to remember."

"They were troublemakers. They pulled pranks on me all the time, and they drove me nearly insane… but I persevered. Eventually, they grew on me in their own special way."

Alice gave a watery smile. "We had so much… we had so much fun, the older we got. While they would always make fun of me every now and again, and their punches were a little too hard… I knew that they could get past their awful nature and grow to be something greater."

Alice looked away. "But… but no matter how close they were to me… they were closer to each other, at the end of the day. They would do everything, _everything_ together. They were nearly inseparable."

"Then… one day, for the fun of it, they decided to explore a nearby Mystery Dungeon. I think its name was Awakening Falls or something. I don't know, I was too busy tending the fields at that point."

"The twins left for an adventure… and only one of them came back." Alice teared up a little bit. "I… when I heard what happened to Tim… they were ganged up on by Poliwrath." Alice gulped. "Tim sacrificed himself to make an opening for Tam, who fled. The two of us… we went to the Dungeon a few days later, armed to the teeth and ready to save Tim, if he survived."

"Tam and I couldn't find him, though. We tried, over and over again, every day for the next month, going through the exact same dungeon again and again… hoping to find even a trace of Tim."

"Eventually, though… we had to admit defeat. Tim… Tim was gone, entirely. We never saw him again." Alice looked away. "Tam left after what happened. Apparently, I wasn't as close to him as I thought - or at the very least, we weren't close enough for him to stay."

"After that… I left. Mom and Dad were taking care of themselves but had cut themselves off from everybody else, including me. There was nothing remaining for me there - no possessions, no bonds… so I left."

Alice sat back, reclining on her posts. "Then… I journeyed. I journeyed and explored, and I got stronger. At one point, I evolved, and I soon started looking for a Dusk Stone to evolve into a Chandelure. A few years ago, I found my way to Jeden and decided that being a Venturer could help me kill a few years if nothing else. I joined the newest class, graduated, and got into Team Zelda. They were something resembling a family for the years I was with them, too."

Alice turned to the rest of us. "And that's the way I thought it was going to be, or at least until I found a Dusk Stone and started raising a family of my own. Then… I met Tom."

"Tom? What about him?" I asked, confused. "What did he do?"

"He didn't _do_ anything if that's what you're asking. It's more like… what he is. To put it bluntly, he's a carbon copy of Tim."

"... what?"

"The voice, the face, the way he makes me feel… if you turned Tom Inverted and gave him a prankster's personality, I literally wouldn't be able to tell the difference between him and the twins. The night I found him… it's like a part of me returned, one that I thought I had lost. There was nothing else I could do but take him under my wing and be the big sister I hadn't been for decades."

Tom reminded Alice of Tim, then.

"Say… Alice, didn't Night refer to Tom as Tim, back when we were inside the prison?"

Alice sighed. "And that's the final thing. The similarity between the two was good - too good. I would have thought that maybe he was a clone or something. But tonight, Tom started referring to me as his sister, of himself as Tim."

"Then… it isn't a coincidence, is it?" Vinia concluded. "They have more than a superficial connection. Does anyone else remember what Tim said tonight, other than talking to Alice if there are any more clues?"

"No… there was so much going on that I forgot most of what happened," Ken answered. Alice answered similarly, though she remarked that Tim was much colder to her than he was previously.

I vaguely remembered something about a parasite, but there were so many other things that I couldn't exactly remember what Tim was talking about.

Alice smiled, depressed. "It's strange, you know. I went for decades, looking and searching for Tim and Tam, but I found nothing. Then, when I try to move on, something else pops up and everything comes back up. First Tom, then Tam, and now Tim."

"Tam? What about him? Wasn't he still searching?"

Alice shook her head. "He became a Venturer too - he was at the Breaking on the behalf of some Captain. He helped Ken out last night."

Ken's eyes widened, as did mine. "That was him? The Chandelure that… turned Inverted…"

"Yeah, Tim and Tam had that talent since we were kids. I don't know when they learned it, but they can hide their Inversion somehow. Right now, I'm thinking that they can control the Miasma a little bit." Alice shrugged helplessly. "It's not much of a theory, but still…"

Alice then got up. "It's been nice talking, but we need to get a move on. I mean, look at the sky!" She gestured to the inky blackness that had fallen while we were talking. "It's been a long, long day, and you guys need to get some sleep. I'll keep watch, so we'd better find some shelter."

"Let's go to the Chimodzi Forest, then." I suggested. "It's near Jeden, and last I checked, it doesn't have any Mystery Dungeons in it."

"That's as good a place as any." Alice shrugged. "Let's get a move on. I'm pretty sure you guys won't want to sleep on an empty stomach and hard ground."

* * *

(The Next Day)

After a good night's rest, we were back to something resembling health. Now that the fighting and stress was over, the aches and pains from all the battles yesterday were taking their toll on me. I found every movement at least slightly painful.

That wasn't even mentioning the hunger that persisted since last night. Still, there was plenty of game in the forest, and Alice knew how to hunt, even if she never had to actually do it.

Vinia chewed on some apples she had foraged around the forest. "So… where to next? We need to go somewhere new, right? It would be ridiculous to stick around here for too long."

Alice nodded. "Yeah, we need to decide where we need to go next. Where do you think the others are?"

Vinia shrugged. "I have no idea, in all honesty. I don't know where _we_ teleported - I don't even know if it was on Naixe, in all honesty."

"So… we'll just hope we'll be able to find them later on." I surmised. "What else can we do, then?"

"Defeat my mother," Vinia suggested. "She's as just as much of a threat as she's always been, and we can't let her keep doing what she's doing."

Alice looked off into the distance. "I want to find Tim and get some answers. He's been missing for decades, and then Tom shows up. Even if he doesn't like me anymore, I still want an explanation."

Ken shrugged. "I want to beat up Dad - he's made my life miserable and I want revenge from yesterday and all the other days."

"... that's a lot we need to cover," I finally said. "Do we even know where they _are_?"

"They're probably with each other since Night teleported them all out of the Base at the same time," Vinia answered. "Once we find one, we can get the locations of the others."

"That doesn't explain _where_ they are, Vinia - their actual location." I reminded her. "We need a direction to go in, and 'to our enemies' isn't a good direction."

Ken started looking thoughtful. "Well… Dad is the leader of the Base, right? That means that he has to be there for the Breaking. And if he's not there for the Breaking, then either the Breaking will be canceled, or he'll be back there."

I could follow Ken's logic. "So, we go to the Breaking and catch your father there?"

Ken nodded. "Once we find him, we'll be able to find Tim and Night."

Vinia got up. "Alright, then - who's ready? The Breaking won't last forever - and remember, they were traveling yesterday, too. We barely have enough time to catch up with the rest of the Units, so we should get to it as soon as possible."

There wasn't much dissent. Alice, Ken, and I grabbed onto Vinia's arm, and we left for the campsite again.

* * *

(Glacia)

Sand in your mouth is hardly the first thing you want after you've woken up from a good nap. Neither is a raging headache.

I stood up, grimacing. Unfortunately, I have both.

Spitting out the sand, I looked around. I was on some sort of beach. Bubbles floated around in the air, with a large cliff face in the shape of a Sharpedo. It looked oddly familiar, though I couldn't quite place where I had seen the sight before.

Then I heard groaning behind me and turned to see Koga pull his head out from underneath the sand, blinking at the sight of the beach.

"Hey, Koga," I waved.

Koga turned his head to look at me. "Oh… hello, Glacia." Koga sat up. "Where are we?"

I shrugged. "I feel like I've been here once before, really recently… but I don't know exactly where." I started looking around. "Do you know where the others are, Koga?"

"I just woke up with my head buried in the sand, why do you think I know where the others are?" Koga asked.

I shrugged. "I don't know, it was just a question."

"Ah… okay." Koga said. We were silent - I never had really talked to him before, so… this was odd.

Koga shook and cleared his head. "We should probably be finding the others, huh?" I quickly nodded - Koga certainly wasn't bad company, not at all, but I could talk to the others much more easily.

"Koga? Glacia?" A foreign voice rang out. "There you guys are!"

We turned to see an Inverted Metagross, running to the beach from what appeared to be a worn out path in the distance.

"Pillar?" Koga asked. Right, right, that was his name… I had heard it somewhere, can't remember exactly.

Pillar stopped at the beach front. "I've been looking for everyone for ages - it's been at least half an hour!" Pillar panted as he walked up to us. I was slightly off-put by Pillar - he acted nothing like you would imagine an Inverted Pokemon to act, and the aura of the Miasma didn't help make it any easier. That, and his size…

"We just woke up," Koga said, gesturing to the two of us. "We were stuck in the sand, so we couldn't respond to your calls."

Pillar shook his head. "That's not a problem - do you know where the others are, specifically Dusknoir?" We shook our heads, and Pillar wilted. "I… right, forgot."

"We should probably be looking," Koga suggested, turning to face the cave that rested at one end of the beach. "I'll go in there, see if I can find anyone. Glacia, look at the top of the cliff, you'll be able to see a lot from there. Pillar, you… do something?"

"On it!" Pillar saluted. "I'll go back to looking for Dusknoir." With that, Pillar started flying away to the forest.

Koga turned to me. "Good luck, Glacia." Koga started running toward the cave at the end of the beach.

I nodded. "Good luck to you, too!" I then turned to the cliff. "How to get up there…?" I looked at the path that Pillar had come down from. "That's as good a place to start as any."

I started making my way up the dirt path, which was overgrown with plants and bushes. I nearly tripped over a few of them, but continued making my way up the path.

I came to a pair of crossroads. In front of me lay a flight of ancient stairs, looking incredibly worn out. To my right was a path that led away from the beach - interesting, but I would have to ignore that for now. To my left was a strange hole, that… also had stairs. It had another path, too.

Considering my options for a few seconds, I decided to go forward and up the stairs. Climbing the flight of stairs, I found myself facing _another_ pair of holes. One had an old wooden grate over it, while the other one had a wooden ladder. There were two worn totem poles too, shaped like various Pokémon. Or at least I think they were, all of the paint had been worn away a long time ago.

What kind of architecture is this?

I walked to the wooden grate somewhat cautiously and put a paw on it. When it crumbled beneath the weight of my body, I turned back. "Nope, not going on there again."

This had clearly been built by an intelligent Pokémon, but how long ago?

I went over to the wooden ladder and put my weight on it. When it too crumbled, I decided that it wasn't worth going down there - not when I didn't know how deep it was nor how I was going to get back up.

I still needed to get to the cliff too, so I could find the others.

I headed down the ancient set of stairs. It was a nice place, but… it wasn't safe or relevant to what we needed to do, at all.

Heading back to the crossroads, I went to the right path - my previous left path. The other one went deeper into the land, away from the beach. This was,hopefully, the path that would lead to the clifftop.

I walked onward. There was a large number of paths that mixed and merged the farther on I went. There was also what appeared to be a large number of ruins of old buildings. This must have been a town of some sort. Still, it looked to have been abandoned a long, long time ago.

Making my way forward, I found myself at the clifftop, facing the beach and the ocean. Here I was… and I couldn't make out any distinct Pokémon.

I sighed. "Koga, maybe _you_ could find someone from up here, but I don't have your powerful vision," I complained to thin air. What was the point of even coming here?

Idly, I looked at the beach from where I was standing. Bubbles floated up to me, all the way from the beach. I frowned.

Where were they coming from, though? Bubbles don't create themselves - something had to blow them.

I squinted my eyes to look at the direction from which the bubbles were blowing. By following the path, I found that they were coming from a set of crags. I could barely make out the shape of some Pokémon on the crags - Krabby, probably.

Krabby… blowing bubbles. Why was that so familiar-

With the crash of the waves of the beach came a realization.

"This was… in Sky's vision." The beach, the Krabby blowing bubbles… even the sun was setting on the waves the exact same way.

This was the beach that Sky had met Naetle on, the one where they had promised to become explorers.

We were no longer on Naixe.

I fell to the ground, shaking. "What… what _happened_?!"

Vinia's teleport took us _this_ far away? How did she manage this - and how are we going to get back?

I had to tell the others - this was something they needed to know. Hopefully, they were able to find Vinia. She could teleport us back to Naixe, so we could take on Night or something.

I headed back the way I came, now realizing that the ruins of a town I was crossing must have been Naetle's hometown. I can't help but wonder how he's going to react when he sees it like this.

Pillar and Koga had already arrived on the beach, and Gel was there too. I skidded across the sand and landed in front of the more evolved Pokemon as they were talking.

"Glacia?" Koga asked. "Did you find anyone?"

I shook my head. "No, I couldn't find anyone. All I was able to find on the cliff were ruins of an old civilization." I paused. "You guys found Gel?"

Pillar nodded. "Gel was in the forest - I caught him under attack by a few Arcanine. We beat them up pretty quickly."

There were a few melted patches on Gel. "It wasn't the most pleasant situation I've found myself in, by far." Then Gel's eyes sharpened. "Have you found Strawberry or Peng?"

I turned to Koga, who shook his head. "I wasn't able to find anything in the cave. It was just your typical Mystery Dungeon, five floors, weak enemies - you get the picture. A complete waste of our time." Koga sighed. "So… there's only four of us here?"

Gel shook his head emphatically. "Strawberry and the others may be around here somewhere! We have to keep looking for them!"

"And how do you suggest we do that? We looked in the surrounding area, and they aren't there. Where else do you even want to search?" Koga calmly challenged. "We don't even know where we are, so we can't travel back the way we came!"

The three others were silent. I decided that this was the best time that I update them on what I figured out on the clifftop.

"About that… I know where we are, at the very least."

Koga turned to me in surprise. "You've been here before?" He asked, curious. "The geography around here looks like nothing on Naixe, even if the maps are incomplete."

"I don't know about the maps or how complete they are," I told him. "But even if they drew everything on Naixe, they wouldn't know about this place."

Koga was silent for a few seconds. "So you're saying that we're no longer on Naixe, then?" He offered, as I nodded. Gel and Pillar's eyes widened as they processed this fact.

"How far did Vinia's teleport take us?" Gel asked, looking slightly disturbed. "We're on a different continent now - how badly did she mess this up?"

"Hey, don't talk about Vinia like that!" I shouted at Gel, peeved. "She probably did her best, okay! She had to teleport twelve of us seconds after an evolution - that's better than anyone else could have done."

"But she separated us in the process!" Gel shot back. "The failed teleport - it must have separated us as well as shot us all the way over here. Now we have no idea where the others are or any idea where we are!"

Koga shook his head as he turned to face me. "You're sure we're not on Naixe, right? That must mean you have some idea of where we are. Have you ever been here before, Glacia?"

I nodded. "This is a completely different continent - to be precise, the continent where Naetle, Sky, and Dusknoir came from."

There was silence at my declaration.

"This is the beach where Naetle and Sky first met - do you see the bubbles in the air?" Dusk was falling away to night time, but there were still a few bubbles in the air. There were a few nods at this. "I had a vision inside Night's prison, when I was alone with Sky. He showed me a few important events in his life with the Dimensional Scream and two of them were over here."

"Okay… so we're in a completely different continent." Gel conceded. "So what do we do? If we're really in a different continent, then there's no feasible way of getting back to Naixe. Do any of you know how to build a boat?"

Nobody offered up their boat-making skills.

Gel sighed. "We should rest for tonight - we're not going anywhere anytime soon, and night has fallen already."

With nothing else to do, we started building a firepit and some rudimentary tents on the beach. In an hour or two, we had eaten from the local wildlife, which was something I never thought I would be forced to do.

How far have I fallen from that spoiled, pampered princess of Eonia? The past few months have altered my life to its very core - I don't know how I would have been able to survive like this if I had been taken to this spot, rather than Castle Rock.

I shook my head. These were nothing but idle thoughts, and now that there was a fire crackling merrily with our hunger sated, we turned back to the issue at hand.

"How are we going to return to Naixe?" Koga postulated, looking at us. "We have to cross an ocean to get back, so we need to figure out how to travel across the sea."

"Maybe we could teleport?" Pillar offered, snacking on a carcass he had found in the woods.

"With who?" Gel asked. "None of us know how to teleport - and if we find anyone who _is_ able to teleport, they wouldn't be able to take us back if they've never been to Naixe before."

"We could build a boat?" I offered. "We might be able to craft something if we try hard enough."

"But could it take us all the way across the ocean? Do we even know what direction we need to travel to get back to Naixe?" Koga asked, and there was nothing I could say in return.

Koga sighed. "We need to _find_ Naixe to even get close to returning to it - but we don't know where it is at all, relative to where we are currently."

"That's probably where we should start, then." Pillar agreed. "Do you think there are any civilizations on this continent?"

"We can't be sure, Pillar, unless we check. There might be a lot of land that we need to cover, so we could be wasting our time looking for Pokémon that don't exist."

"Then what do we do?" Gel asked. "We can't just lay here and waste away - my sister needs me!" Gel turned to me. "Is there anything else you remember from those visions - anything at all, anything we can use?"

I nodded. "I'll try to remember as much as I can from those visions." I closed my eyes to concentrate, trying to remember. Let's see now… Naetle had asked Sky to form an Exploration Team with him in Wigglytuff's Guild… the tearful reunion…

"There was a lake." I finally remembered. "The entirety of Wigglytuff's Guild went to a strange sparkling lake. There were Volbeat and Illumise flying everywhere… there was a strange Pokémon Wigglytuff was talking to… there was a blue and green gear, I think…

Gel sighed. "So it's one of their expeditions, huh? Are there any other visions?"

I shook my head. "Nothing else - only that lake and this beach." I wish I had more time with Sky, or I had asked Naetle more about his past - then we could have probably figured out something to do.

Pillar, though, looked at me with interest. "Was the Pokémon Wigglytuff was talking to yellow? With two tails?"

I nodded, slightly surprised. "Yeah. Do you recognize the species?"

Pillar nodded. "While we were stuck in prison, Dusknoir told me all about his past. The lake you were talking about was one of three lakes Dusknoir mentioned having Time Gears."

I was a little curious. "So that strange gear in the middle of the lake was a 'Time Gear'?"

Pillar nodded. "According to Dusknoir, they're bastions of Dialga's power. They help him stabilize time throughout the entire world and help power him up."

I gaped. "That weird gear was _that_ powerful?!"

Pillar nodded. "That's why they have to be guarded against thieves who wish to use them for their own ends. According to Dusknoir, that Pokemon you saw was probably Uxie, who guarded the Time Gear in Fogbound Lake."

"Uxie?" Koga interrupted, having been listening in. "As in the embodiment of all knowledge?"

Pillar nodded. "Yeah, that one. Each of the Spirit Trio was protecting one of Dialga's Time Gears - Mesprit guarded the Time Gear in an underground lake, and Azelf guarded the Time Gear in a crystal-filled cave. Uxie took the Time Gear in Fogbound Lake." Pillar looked curious. "Why do you want to know?"

"Pillar, right now, our biggest problem is that we know nothing. We're stuck in an unfamiliar land, surrounded by an impassable sea with no way to get back to Naixe. We need to know where we are and how to get back to Naixe - and Uxie holds all knowledge of the world."

Gel had apparently been listening in, too. "So you want to go find Uxie, then, so we can get his help to get back to Naixe?"

Koga shrugged. "It's better than anything else we have right now. We can't build a boat or find a Pokémon able to Teleport. We don't know if the others will be able to find us. We don't even know where to go to look for civilizations of Pokémon. Uxie is our best shot."

Gel nodded. "Fine - but how will we be getting to Fogbound Lake? We don't even know where it is - we know next to _nothing_ about this continent."

There was nothing we could say to that.

"In other words, we're still as lost as we were when we arrived," Gel concluded. "We're in the middle of a continent with no way of getting back home."

…

…

…

With nothing else to say, Gel went away from the fire, heading into his tent. The fire sprung to life as he did so, the cold had dampened the strength of the fire.

"... we should go to sleep," Koga said after a few minutes of silence. "Maybe we'll be able to think of something once we get a good night's rest." Koga went to his own tent. "Good night, you two."

I felt like a stone was sinking in my stomach. The situation… it wasn't hopeless. If it was hopeless, they would be trapped there with no chance of getting back to Naixe. No… they just had no idea what to do or where to go.

But before I could sink further into the misery of my thoughts, Pillar turned to me. "Er, Glacia? Some of your friends told me that you can undo Inversion. Is this true?"

"Yeah, I destroyed the core of the Miasma inside Merla. It couldn't bother her anymore after that. And I haven't sensed any Miasma coming from myself since the possessor left me, so I'm okay."

Pillar nodded. "Well… could you get rid of the Miasma inside me?" Pillar asked. "I… I've wanted to rid myself of it for years… and you can help me."

I nodded. "Okay - but I'll need to go to sleep to help you, okay? I had to go to sleep to help Merla, so I'll probably have to go to sleep to help you. You should also go to sleep, by the way." Pillar agreed, before heading into his own tent.

Meanwhile, I went for my tent and let my own exhaustion crawl over me. With a small yawn, I fell asleep.

* * *

I woke in that world - that awful, _awful_ world.

"Not here! Not again!" I wailed as the strange wisps floated around me. "Is there any other way you want to hurt me - to attack me?!"

There was no response, other than a stairway heading downwards appearing in the ground.

I looked at it in hate. "I thought you didn't want me coming here! Now you're welcoming me?!" I started charging a Shadow Ball - before it exploded in my face.

I rocketed backward as the spirits crowded around me, making concerned noises.

I stood up, a little dizzy. "Ugh… I haven't done that in… months…" I tried to summon the energy for another Shadow Ball, but it fizzled out before it could get to any meaningful size. I changed tracks trying for a Swift before that failed too. "What's wrong with my attacks?!"

Then the ball - that awful, awful ball - appeared out of the ground, shining a painful glow on me as the stairway disappeared. "Hello, Glacia."

I grit my teeth. "You…"

"I didn't expect you to awaken him so soon - I thought it would take a week, maybe two, before you pulled him out," The ball commented. "It only took you a few hours, though. I underestimated you."

"You _knew_ that was going to happen!" I roared, jumping at him. "You _knew_ the effect that word has!"

The ball made a nodding motion. "I also expedited the progress that little organization was making. Once you gave the name to the Galvantula, it was only a matter of time before they found out and got curious."

I stared at the ball coldly. "You're a monster - a true _monster_."

"Maybe." The ball snorted. "That's in the past, though-"

"Like hell it is!" I shouted, charging at the ball, a Bite fizzling dangerously in my mouth.

The ball easily sidestepped my attack, however, and continued to move out of the way of my swipes. "You know, there's no point in attacking me. I can easily regenerate whatever damage you inflict."

The ball let me slash through him, and I only had a second's victory before he undid the damage, particles of light coming together with a crash of glass. I slowly came to a halt, panting. There was no point in trying to kill him, not when all of my attacks would easily be reversed.

"You… you won't get away with this…" I promised.

The ball laughed. "I'm fine with that - I fully intended to reap the consequences of what I sowed." The ball's voice turned serious. "Nonetheless… if you want to fight the Ahriman, you're going to have to get back to Naixe."

Upon hearing the word 'Ahriman', I cringed, expecting the awful cold feeling to swallow me whole. When nothing happened, I looked at the ball in confusion.

The ball, meanwhile, was chuckling. "Oh, by the way. Since you don't have the Ahriman or any Miasma left within you, there isn't any harm in saying his name - for you, at least."

"The Ahriman. Ahriman. The Ahriman sucks. I wish the Ahriman would die." I tested. Sure enough, the frigid cold I had come to expect didn't come. "Wait… so the name is safe now?"

"For you, at least. I wouldn't say it around your Metagross friend, though. With the Miasma still in him, it'll harm him greatly. And even if you get rid of it, he's been with the Miasma for nearly his whole life - the word will probably still affect him somehow."

Something bugged me, though, about what the ball just said. "His name? Are you saying the Ahriman is a person?"

The ball snorted. "Hardly. While they might have once qualified for the category of 'person', they've long since thrown it away. Right now, they're more like a parasite, leaching onto a host. But if you are asking if the Ahriman is a being - then yes, the Ahriman is a _thing_ that has a name."

Parasite… parasite… wait a second…

"The possessor!" The realization pounded awfully into me. "The Ahriman is the possessor!"

The ball laughed. "Took you long enough! The Ahriman was lying dormant in the back of your head for years. Today, you woke it up."

That reminder caused me to glare at the ball again. "Yeah… because of the name you gave me," I accused. "You knew that he would wake up - are you _friends_ with that monster?!"

Then the world started rumbling, and I knew that I had somehow made a mistake. The ball of light started shaking as a strange tinkling sound reverberated through my skull.

Then the ball roared at me, it's voice pounding deep into my ears. " _YOU DARE THINK I WOULD ALLY MYSELF WITH THAT DEMON! I WOULD RATHER THROW HIS DESICCATED CORPSE INTO THE PITS OF HELL THAN AID HIM!_ "

"Why did you tell me his name, then?" I challenged. "You knew I would wake him up! You hate him, but want him to be up and active?!"

The ball let out an aggravated sigh, sitting in silence. I waited for my answer.

Finally, the ball decided to explain - by asking a question. "Do you remember the first time you came here?"

I slowly nodded. "Yeah - this was before I time-traveled, right? When I was still in Eonia."

The ball nodded. "Right… who was I talking to?"

"Tom?" Something I still don't quite understand.

"Tom is more important than you can possibly imagine. So when you interfered - when you touched him, letting some of the Miasma from the Ahriman inside you leak through… I went ballistic."

My eyes widened. "The Miasma was inside me back then?!"

"Yes, though you couldn't sense it. Still… Tom had become slightly tainted. It would disappear, given time… but then that tournament occurred… and you kept on interacting with him." The ball sighed. "Tom wasn't developing properly, and there was nothing I could do to undo the slow infection the Miasma was inflicting upon him. Not to mention Tim's influence."

"Who?"

"The point is, I felt stuck. Then you showed up again, the Ahriman still stuck inside you. At that point, I had to shake things up. I could make a guess as to which sequence of events would stimulate Tom's awakening - and, for the most part, I succeeded."

"Awakening?" My voice is soft. "Tom is dead - the Ahriman killed him."

"The Ahriman killed him, but he hasn't remained dead. He's alive again, though recovering. The shock will be enough to awaken his latent powers… hopefully."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. "Tom's still alive?!"

"And developing his powers, hopefully." The ball looked at me square in the eye. "The point is, Tom needs to get stronger if he's going to face the Ahriman. That will need time, though. We need to get you back to Naixe as soon as possible so that you can stop the Ahriman from getting too strong in Tom's absence."

The way the ball was talking…

"You're making it sound like it's Tom's destiny to beat the Ahriman - like some Chosen One story."

"If you wish to look at it like that… then yes. You have to run damage control, though - we have no guarantee the Ahriman will stay weak enough for Tom to defeat."

I wasn't too sure… the ball was sounding incredibly fishy…

… still…

"How can we get back to Naixe?" I asked.

"Your Greninja friend was correct when he predicted that Uxie can help you. Go to Fogbound Lake - follow the coast southward until you come across a mountain range. Then travel through the mountains until you get to a forest. Find the statue of Groudon, place the Drought stone inside, and travel through Steam Cave. At the end of Steam Cave is Fogbound Lake - Uxie will tell you what to do from there."

"Wait, what-"

"Ultimately, you are the one who's going to have to take control of this whole debacle, at least until Tom is ready." The ball finally stated. "If you waste time, the Ahriman is going to win, _permanently_."

"Stop!" I shouted, and at last, the ball stopped giving orders.

"You… who are you? Why are so _insane_?! You… I…"

"Glacia, I honestly don't care if you hate me. I deserve your scorn at this point, the way I've led you around." The ball admitted without sympathy. "But right now, you have a friend to save. After all, didn't you promise your Metagross friend that you'd destroy the Miasma inside him?"

"Right, but-"

A swirling portal appeared next to the ball of light.

"Here is the portal into the Metagross's mind. He's already there waiting for you - it shouldn't be too much trouble for you to take the infection out, given his natural resilience and the fact that it never really took hold."

"Who are you?!" I finally shouted, getting a word in edgewise. "You've been messing with me for too long to just leave again! If you have any decency, at least give me your name!"

The ball turned to me one last time. "Very well. I have many, many monikers… Devourer of Light… the Blinding One…"

As the ball spoke, it unfolded from its spherical shape. It gained tough, rough edges, with a dragon-like look to it. It reminded me strangely of a prism.

"But you may call me Necrozma."

Then the wisps that had crowded around me started pushing me forward. Before I could stop them to ask what on Naixe 'Necrozma' was talking about, they had already pushed me through the portal to Pillar's mind.

"Good luck, Glacia. You'll need it."

* * *

(Far, Far Away...)

* * *

Ouch… ouch… ouch… why does everything hurt so much… I feel like I need to throw up…

What… what happened…? All I remember is the prison… losing control… being forced to watch that horrific spectacle… falling out of my body… then nothing…

I opened my eyes and pulled myself into a sitting position, leaning on my arms and legs…

… legs? I have legs again?

A foreign voice echoed around in my head.

" _Yeah, actual limbs are pretty sweet. Too bad I won't get to see much more use out of them, now that you're running the show."_

Who… are you?

" _My name is Marshadow, though I usually go by Shadow or Shade._ " The voice in his head introduced. " _I'm also the person who owns the body you're inhabiting. Be careful with it, would you?_ "

The body I'm inhabiting? I… what happened to me?

" _You died. You died, and we couldn't let you stay dead. So… welcome to my body. It might not be the exact body you've grown accustomed to… but given your experience, I expect you'll make do._ "

I died? But how? Why?

" _Your previous host fought too much against you. When they finally won, they expelled you and had the Ahriman try to kill you. And they technically succeeded. Although, since we saved your soul, you're still alive, in a completely new body._ "

A new body?

" _Yep. I'm a_ _Pokémon_ _that looks a lot like a human, except smaller and more compact. You're a Fighting-type now, not a Fire-type. Remember that; it'll save you a lot of trouble. Though, you still are a Ghost-type, so you still have that going for you._ "

… "sorry, I'm having some trouble processing this. I _died_?"

" _Yes, you died. Don't worry, we're going to the Ghost World soon to visit Pops, he'll_ probably _explain this better than I can_."

Alright, then. I've never heard of this Ghost World, though.

" _Oh, it's a great place. Lots of spirits, interesting company. Maybe we'll even get to see Necrozma, if he decides to come out of his subterranean cave._ "

… "I'll pretend like I understand what you're talking about, for now."

" _That's the spirit._ "

"Before we go there, though, I have to make sure Glacia and everyone else is okay. If I died… they might not be safe."

" _Oh, they're safe for the most part - except for the Larvesta, she died._ "

"Merla died?!"

" _Yeah - the good news is, we brought her back, just like we did with you. The bad news is that this will probably be your last time since Arceus likes to make sure life and death are perfectly balanced - the old coot_."

"Where is she, then?"

" _Eh… maybe a few hundred meters away? If you call her name she'll probably be able to hear you - we didn't bring you back too far apart._ "

"Merla? MERLA!" I called out into the world."

Then there was a lot of crashing and breaking of branches as several Taillow and Pikipek were jostled from their nesting spots.

Then a strange creature barreled into the area where I had woken up. Looking like a strange cross between a dragon and a centipede with a ringed middle and two smoky wings, it looked around frantically.

Then it locked eyes with me. "Who was that, calling my name?!" It challenged.

My eyes widened. "Merla?" She looked so… different.

" _Yeah, she was put in a spare Drone we had lying around. They aren't half-bad bodies, you know._ "

Then Merla, in her strange new form, locked ruby red eyes with me, studying me intensely. Then she came to a realization, figuring out who I was. She began walking toward me with her six legs.

"Tom?!"


	19. 19 - A Witch Town

(Naetle)

Helliana Town was a strange place, for sure. It didn't have any sort of water and the air was thick with sulfur. I thought for sure that I would catch on fire at one point, but for some reason, I never did.

The four of us - Strawberry, Dusknoir, Sky and I - appeared at the lip of a volcano once we had escaped from the prison. It took us a good three seconds to decide that it wasn't worth sticking around and getting burned. Dusknoir carried Strawberry as we scurried down the mountain, avoiding any rocks that may have accidentally fallen on us.

Helliana Town was at the foot of the volcano - which seemed like it was dangerous, but the lava never flowed toward the inhabitants of the town, and ash didn't blow their way. They all seemed rather happy, in this town in the middle of nowhere.

We spent a few hours recovering from what happened earlier that day. Strawberry, even with the lack of fighting strength, was resilient. Soon enough, she had recovered a fair bit.

Sky and I reconnected, after so many months far apart. The reunion was short, sweet, and simple, but it filled me with the sense of belonging Sky always does. Team Relic was reformed, after months of separation.

Not that there weren't any problems left.

Chief among them was Dusknoir. I should have suspected that he was still existing - Celebi's presence meant that Sky wasn't the only Pokemon spared from being erased. Dusknoir was here, too - and was now Inverted, through that strange process.

We didn't know what to do with him. I couldn't trust him, not after how he had betrayed us. The Miasma would only serve to make him _even more dangerous_. Still, he was more dangerous alone than he was with us - there's no telling what he would do if we left him alone.

We had to keep him with us, in the end, if only to monitor him.

Strawberry was another problem. The seven-year-old wasn't a fighter, nowhere close to it. Oh, sure, she was resilient and all and was learning to keep a cool head in dangerous situations, but she couldn't defend herself. Bringing her along to wherever we were going was dangerous.

But we can't stay in Helliana Town for too long. We don't know how long it will take for news to travel across the kingdom, but it probably won't say nice things about us.

Which brought us to our main problem - namely, where are we going to go? We have many, many problems we need to solve. Night was the first and most pressing of them. Her forces were everywhere - we need to leave for a safer space, where Night couldn't take them down.

Then there was something that we had to deal with before we even traveled to this time - Darkrai. The last thing I remembered was fighting Darkrai in Dark Crater, before waking up in Naixe, alone. Darkrai was still out there, back in our time. We needed to go back to deal with him, permanently.

Finally, there was that thing that had taken control of Henka and Glacia - that weird puppeteer. It was still out there at large, and I had no idea what it wanted - only that it probably wasn't going to be very pleasant.

Sky and I discussed all of this, alone.

"What are we going to do, Sky?" I asked. "We can't be everywhere, but we need to be somewhere!"

Sky frowned. "Yeah, I get what you mean…" He then looked at me. "And the Dimensional Scream isn't helping much at all, either. All I get are weird fragments and tidbits - nothing substantial enough to actually make a decision out of."

So, there was no solution that way, either. We were lost at a set of crossroads, with no way forward.

I sighed. "Do you want to go into town?" I asked. "Maybe we can figure out what we need to do there?"

It wasn't likely, but it was better than just standing around in the shed they had found at the base of the volcano.

Sky shrugged. "Why not?"

Helliana Town is a quaint, odd little place. It's situated in the middle of nowhere, and it doesn't communicate much with other cities and towns. They don't know who Night is, as she hasn't visited here yet. We're not outlaws in this town.

So when we walked into the town's central square, nobody batted an eye, except for the odd and impressed seven-year-old looking at 'the cool Venturers' and their strong powers.

Since I wasn't too much older than them myself, it definitely felt odd. I decided not to pay it too much mind, though.

Sky and I sat on a small bench under the shade of some trees, munching on some spare Apples we had.

"So… what's happened, Naetle?" Sky asked. "Except for the few hours I had before I got imprisoned, I haven't really been able to explore Naixe. What's it like?"

I chewed hard, thinking. "It's… it's not like home." I admitted. "Most of the people are nice… but not like they are back home. When they're nice, they _want_ something. Not many are nice for no reason. There are way more bullies and Pokémon like Team Skull, and it's been hard to deal with alone."

Team Skull… it's been a long time since I've thought about them. They were nasty and petty… but they weren't _monsters_ , not in the way someone like Catal is. Team Skull could and would throw you under the bus… but only if it benefited them in some way. They said awful things and would only fart on you, but would otherwise leave you alone.

Here in Naixe… they go out of their way to hurt, to _destroy._ The only thing I could compare them to was Darkrai… and isn't that a scary thought.

What _happened_? Why are their Rings? How do these people know about Wigglytuff?

"Naetle?" Sky shook me. "You've been spacing out."

I shook my head. "Sorry, I got a little distracted. So, what were you talking about?"

"What happened after you time traveled? I woke up, found the nearest town, then got captured. What happened to you?"

I considered the question slowly.

"... when I first time traveled, I woke up next to a big lake, at the foot of some tree," I answered. "I was a little confused - after all, the last thing I remembered was fighting Darkrai. I didn't waste much time worrying and fretting, though. I had to figure out where I was, so I could get back to Treasure Town."

"Where did you land?" Sky asked, curious. "I landed near Siemna Town, but that's far, far away from Jeden City."

"I landed a little closer to Jeden City. I think its name was Fertis Village or something. It didn't have a library, and I didn't know where Naixe was in relation to our continent, so I couldn't find my way back.

"The villagers gave me some directions to Jeden City - they said that maybe I could get some help from the Base to find where everyone is. On the way, I accidentally got stuck in a Mystery Dungeon. I thought that it would be easy, considering how weak the constructs inside were… but I found myself fighting for my life. Something robbed me of my power."

Sky nodded. "Yeah… during our fight with Night, I tried using Hydro Pump, but I couldn't use it. I don't know why, but I wasn't strong enough." Sky sighed. "A lot of my moves have been weakened or are missing completely. I can use some Water Pulses, a few Bubble Beams… but I can't use anything stronger than that."

The time travel had robbed us of our abilities - both of us. It hadn't taken away Dusknoir's strength, though, looking at how he had fought Henka - and it hadn't weakened Celebi either.

That was another complication with Dusknoir - we couldn't protect ourselves from him as we had at the end of our own journey. We were back to the way we were when we first met Dusknoir - way, _way_ weaker.

"Anyway," I continued. "I had to be rescued by some Venturers that happened to be exploring the inside of the Dungeon. They brought me to Captain Falcon, who decided that I would have to become a Venturer to repay the Base for my rescue since I didn't have any money."

"Wait… so they forced you into training because you needed to be rescued?" Sky sounded disturbed. "When we rescued people, we didn't demand payment or anything."

"It's just like I said, Sky, they always _want_ something. That time I was lucky since I had wanted to become a Venturer and get my strength back… but Tom and Glacia might not have wanted to become Venturers, and they were forced to become Venturers like I was."

"You know, who _is_ Tom?" Sky asked. "I've seen you talk about him, but who is he?"

Tom… now that was a Bag I needed to unpack.

"Tom… I don't know him very well," I answered. "He doesn't talk that much about himself, and he has amnesia, so there I don't know that much about what he was like before I met him… except that he was a human."

Sky's eyes widened. "What?"

"Yeah - and he described them accurately, so I don't think he was lying." Lying was way too common here on Naixe. "He's always nice, too - he's much more like the Pokémon back home than most of the ones here."

Sky nodded. "He sounds great… what's with the weird face?"

"Oh… sorry. It's just… remember what happened at the prison? It sounded like he's…" The word tasted like Toxic in my mouth.

"... oh." Sky had finally noticed. "... and Glacia? I've met her, but I didn't get to talk to her for very long. She seemed like an incredible person, though."

I nodded. "She is. She's smart, and she's a great leader for Team Ness," I sighed. "She was… rude, sometimes, but she did her best to be nice. She told us she used to be a princess of 'Eonia', some ancient kingdom."

"She time traveled, too?" I nodded. "That's… actually, it isn't that strange anymore."

Definitely. Some strange force was plucking us from our time periods and putting us in Naixe, for some reason.

"So, you became a Venturer?"

I shook my head. "Not yet. They don't have apprentices, like back in the guild. Instead, they have _classes_ , where they teach you everything you need to know about Mystery Dungeons. They make you go through some exams before you can become Venturers."

"While I was taking classes, I met everyone, and we made this group called 'The Pariahs'."

"The what?"

I flushed. "We became outcasts. We were weird, Ghost-types, or Inverted Pokemon - all of us didn't really belong with the others. There were six of us - Tom, Vinia, Glacia, Merla, Shift, and I."

"Who are Vinia, Merla, and Shift?" Sky asked.

"Vinia is the Ralts that was fighting with us against Night - you know, the one who teleported us out of the prison?" Sky nodded. "She was training to be a medic and a Venturer, though she got kicked out of the program at the very end. Shift was kicked out, too - he was my first friend in Naixe and helped me out a lot. He had some confidence issues, which we worked out in the months we were together."

"And… Merla?"

Merla…

Sky had seen the look on my face. "Oh… she was the…"

I slowly nodded. "She was the Inverted Larvesta - the one who got… killed…" My gut wrenched as I fought to keep my lunch in my stomach. "I… I didn't know her too well. She stayed near Glacia, most of the time… I don't think I mattered much to her, either… but…"

I shook my head. "A-Anyway," I nearly screamed, making Sky jump. "We became friends and four of us - Tom, Glacia, M… Merla, and I, we became Team Ness."

Sky nodded. "Then what happened?"

"I told them about everything - about me, about you, about my weakness, about the time travel… everything." My eyes watered. "They instantly decided that we were going to find you, no matter what it took. We would go ask everyone about you, to see if anyone knew where you were… although, nobody knew where you were."

"I was halfway across Naixe… so I don't think anyone knew where I was."

"Yeah, I know… so eventually, we got the help of a Vikavolt named Kavol to help us build a 'radar' to find you. It works off the distortion made from our time travel, so it would have been able to find you, probably."

"Then, before Kavol could finish it, we had to go on a 'Breaking'. You know about the Rings, right?"

"No, not really."

"Okay, so Naixe is divided into a hundred Rings. Each Ring is numbered from one to one hundred and has a Mystery Dungeon protecting it. Some parts of Naixe are completely isolated because of it. To get rid of the barrier Rings, you need to complete the Dungeon, which is called a 'Breaking'. Most of the Base has to help, too."

"Okay… so why didn't you just finish the Breaking and come back?"

There wasn't a good answer to that…

"We were worried, I guess. Night scared us - she was looking for you too. We didn't know if she had found you yet, though, so we rushed to find you as fast as possible. The Breaking was a big delay - it would last a few weeks, at the very least." I looked at him, curious. "How long were you in captivity, Sky? I want to know how off we were."

"A few weeks… maybe a month... " Sky slowly answered. "At some point, I lost track of time."

So, the radar was useless in the end, and Kavol's efforts were pointless. "Once we met up with him again, he would be so…"

"… oh, _no_."

"What's wrong?"

"We left Kavol behind, at the Breaking. We took him along since food would have been a problem for him - now he's stuck there, all alone." I sighed. "I'm just going to hope that Vinia can help him before too long."

Sky winced. "That's rough for him… so, what happened after the Breaking?"

I shook my head. "As far as I'm aware, it's still going," I answered. "The night before last, while we were still traveling to the Ring… we met Celebi."

"Celebi?!" Sky stood up in alarm. "She's here too?"

I nodded. "She was brought here like the rest of us - except that she appeared only a few days ago. We met her when she first arrived."

"Where is she?!"

I cast my mind to that night. "She's looking for Grovyle. He's probably here on Naixe, too" My heart ached slightly, as did Sky's. "I… I want to look for him, too. I want to see him again, safe."

Sky nodded.

"Anyway… Celebi left to find Grovyle. The next morning, Glacia was acting strangely, mentioning something called 'The Ahriman'... whatever that is." The name sounded ominous upon leaving my lips, as though it were some taboo. "She ran into the forest, where Night captured her. Then all of us came to rescue her… and I think you know the rest."

Sky nodded. "I can figure the rest out." He sighed. "When did things get so complicated, Naetle?"

I couldn't really answer that.

But, at the end… we were left with the same problems we started off with. Night and the possessor were still at large, and Darkrai remained a force of darkness in the past.

Ultimately, we needed to stop Night and the possessor, or…

… we needed to change _everything_.

"I… I have an idea, Sky," I gulped. "It's… it's a long shot… but if we manage it correctly, we can fix _everything_."

Sky looked at me. "What is it?"

"We have to find the Passage of Time and go back. Once we do that, we can undo all of the damage Night and the possessor have done and go back to defeat Darkrai." I answered. "That's the only thing I can really think of - Night and her forces are too strong for us to take down and the possessor… we don't know where he is. But if we go back, we won't have to worry about any of it. We can fix _everything_."

"Everything?" Sky sounded skeptical. "That sounds nice, but will it really be that easy?"

"Do you have a better idea?"

Sky was silent.

"How are we going to get to the Passage of Time?" He finally asked. "We're going to need to go back in time, but without Dimensional Holes, we'll only be able to use the Passage of Time. Have you found it yet?"

I coughed. "Actually, I thought that you could find it with the Dimensional Scream."

Sky looked pensive. "I think… will that work, Naetle?"

"It's worth a shot, in any case. What's the harm in doing it?"

Sky nodded. "Alright, then. Stand there so I can use the Dimensional Scream on you." Sky walked up to me and put his flippers on my body.

Soon, Sky was wincing and sweating heavily, and I knew that the Dimensional Scream had taken hold.

Then he opened his eyes.

"I… I saw Celebi." He said, gasping slightly. "It was… it was a wasteland. There was the Passage of Time, in a strange rock. She opened it, and then… and then nothing else."

There was a great moment of silence.

"Naetle… what do you think it means?" Sky asked. "I mean… the Passage of Time is now in a wasteland… and Celebi is the one that opens it."

"I think we have to find Celebi, then," I answered. "Even if we find the Passage of Time, we'll need her help to operate it, right?" Sky nodded. "Then we have to find Celebi. After that, we can locate exactly where the Passage of Time is, and get back into the past."

"So, we're looking for Celebi, then?"

I nodded - and finally, we had a way forward.

Sky looked curious. "But where will we find her? She's not the type to show herself off, you know - she'll hide."

"Maybe if you use the Dimensional Scream again, it'll show us where we'll need to meet her," I suggested, if only because it was the only useful tool we had at our disposal right now.

Sky winced. "The Dimensional Scream hurts too much if I use it, but I'll try." Sky then used the Dimensional Scream, holding on to me again.

"I see… I see…" Sky tried to say. I eagerly awaited for what the Dimensional Scream was going to show us.

Then Sky toppled over, collapsing to the ground.

"Sky? Sky?!" I shouted, my own apple falling from my hand as I rushed to his side. "What happened?!"

"Pain…. Pain…" Sky cried, shaking in place. "I don't know why… but everything hurts…"

I slowly helped Sky to his feet, and he sat back on the ground.

"Something is wrong with my Dimensional Scream," He said slowly. "There's someone… interfering, or something. My head hurts, and I can't place it."

I knelt at his side, as Sky continued groaning.

"Do you think you need some medicine?" I fretted.

Sky shook his head. "No, I just need to lie down for a little bit," he said. "I think we should go back to the shack - I'm too tired to continue."

"Alright, if you say so…" I brought Sky to his feet, and we started walking back to the shack.

When we were reaching the outskirts of town, though Sky collapsed again, legs shaking in burning in pain.

"H… help…" Sky grit his beak. "I can't keep moving, Naetle… my body feels like it's weighed down, or it's underwater, or…"

"We need to get you to a doctor." There was no complaint or protest, which only incensed me to find one as fast as possible.

I looked at a Shelgon, who was walking across the plaza of Helliana Town as Sky struggled. "Excuse me, do you know where the nearest doctor is?!"

"The nearest doctor?" The Shelgon hummed. "Go to Dr. Sahira - she's the only doctor in Helliana Town." The Shelgon looked at Sky, with a look of sympathy on his face. "He looks like he needs all the help he can get, too."

I slung the moaning Sky on my shoulder and made sure he was tightly bound to my back. "Where is Dr. Sahira?" I pressed.

The Shelgon pointed to a small steeple only a few blocks away. "Do you see the steeple?" I nodded. "Dr. Sahira works inside there - if you ask the Mismagius hanging around, you'll be able to find her."

I nodded, and thanked the Shelgon for their help, before running to the steeple with all the speed by stubby legs could muster. We must have been an odd sight, a Piplup stuck to the top of a Turtwig. Ignoring the curious glances, I continued onward.

After a good five to ten minutes of running, I finally arrived at the steeple and slammed the doors open, looking around. There were a few rows of long benches, as a Mismagius or two was cleaning, using their poltergeist powers to hold up brooms.

The Mismagius, after hearing me open the door, looked rather curious. "Excuse me - may we help you?" They put down their brooms as they turned to look at us.

"Do you know where Dr. Sahira is?" I asked. "My friend collapsed and he needs help, _now_!"

The Mismagius nodded. "I'll bring her out to you now, so please wait a minute, if you could," one of the Mismagius said, before quickly floating to a side door in the steeple.

The other Mismagius came to me and undid the bounds on Sky, before lifting him up and putting him on the bench. Sky continued to groan in pain, shaking every couple of seconds. He then proceeded to vomit on the floor, causing the Mismagius to recoil in disgust.

"I'll get a bucket for him - he'll clearly need it." The Mismagius floated off, as Sky continued groaning.

"Naetle… help me…"

But there was nothing I could do. All I could do was wait for the doctor to arrive.

Fortunately, it only took a few more minutes for Dr. Sahira - another Mismagius - to arrive, flanked by a few more Mismagius. Dr. Sahira swooped down on Sky, inspecting him closely. Then her eyes glowed slightly, and she gasped.

"What happened to him?" She finally asked. "What happened before he fell ill like this?"

"What do you mean?" I asked, worried.

"Was he attacked by some Psychic or Ghost Type Pokemon or attacked by sort of mind attacking ability?"

I shook my head. "We were in a battle with a Gardevoir a few hours ago, but nothing other than that?"

Dr. Sahira looked puzzled. "Gardevoir don't have any ability that can persist for a few hours. If it was fifteen to thirty minutes ago, it could be attributed to a Psychic, but nothing to this magnitude. Are you _sure_ there's nothing else?"

I then felt a strange headache as I shook my head. "He wasn't attacked by anything else."

Then a different Mismagius behind me spoke up. "Dr. Sahira, you're asking the wrong questions."

Dr. Sahira looked intrigued. "What do you mean by that, dear?" I turned, confused.

"I looked inside his head, just to make sure he wasn't lying about the attacks." I recoiled as I realized what caused that strange headache. "Only thirty minutes ago, the Piplup was having strange visions."

Dr. Sahira turned to me, pressing hard. "Is that true?"

I reluctantly nodded. "Sky has these visions sometimes when he touches things. It shows them their past or future. It gives him headaches when he does it, but he always recovers within a few seconds."

Dr. Sahira shook his head. "Perhaps, but with those Psychics as well? It'd easily overwhelm him. There isn't anything inherently wrong with his body - all of his problems are psychosomatic."

"What?"

"Psychosomatic problems are body problems that originate from your mental state, like an irregular heartbeat from stress. The combination of the visions and the Psychics are clearly damaging him."

Something ripped through my heart. "I shouldn't have pushed him to use the Dimensional Scream so much…"

"The Dimensional Scream is the vision ability?" Dr. Sahira asked. I slowly nodded… then stood still as I noticed the Mismagius look at me, very intently.

Then a strange chant started, and there was a large boom behind me. I twisted around to see the door to the steeple lock, bars suddenly appearing.

I stepped back, narrowing my eyes. "What are you doing?" I asked.

One of the Mismagius floated forward. "You said that the Piplup… Sky… used the Dimensional Scream, correct?"

Night! She had people this far out?!

I prepared an Energy Ball in my mouth as the Mismagius awaited an answer.

"And if he did? Then what?"

"Does Sky have any connections with humans? Any at all?"

The Energy Ball dispersed in the air. "You… know what humans are?"

The Mismagius's eyes widened, and they all looked at each other with wonder, whispering to each other. I felt distinctly out of the loop.

Finally, the Mismagius turned to me, one last time. "Have you heard of the tale of the Temporal Grovyle and the Lustrous Celebi?"

I slowly nodded. "Yes?" It was our own story, with us edited out of it.

"Do you know that the story is edited? That the story is missing the true saviors?" The Mismagius asked, slowly circling.

They… knew the truth?

The question had been rhetorical, for the Mismagius continued. "Two Pokémon, their names lost to time, were born at that period. They had assisted the Temporal Grovyle and the Lustrous Celebi - in fact, it was _they_ who saved time, not the Grovyle. One of them held the key to the Temporal Tower, which allowed them to save time."

They knew the truth!

"The other, though, had a few more peculiarities. They had the ability to see through the past and future… the Dimensional Scream. They also were a strange creature before they were a Pokémon… a 'human'. Then, only a year after they saved time… they vanished, completely."

"How… how do you know all of this?" I asked, looking at the coven of Mismagius. "I thought all of this was lost to time!"

The Mismagius looked excited. "So, it's true!" One of them said. "I almost can't believe it! Now his descendants have arrived!"

Descendants?

The Mismagius continued speaking. "We are followers of an ancient religion… Temporalism. Unlike the fools who believe that Arceus is the Creator, we know that the deities of space and time - Dialga and Palkia - are the ones that built the world.

"When the Calamity of Time neared, many millennia ago, it only became a legend… a 'tall tale' to most of the naive pokemon." The Mismagius uttered a chilling laugh. "They're wrong! Absolutely, completely, wrong!"

"They scorned us, and removed all traces of the two's existence from the records, for they feared the truth! The existence of humans… erased!"

They surrounded us. "But, clearly… the descendant of the savior has returned!" They looked at the continuous vomiting of Sky. "Though he is ill. I trust you know what to do, Dr. Sahira."

Dr. Shaira nodded. "I'll take him right now and start treating him - I think that some memory erasing would be adequate considering the nature of the illness." The Mismagius nodded as Dr. Sahira lifted Sky with her poltergeist powers. "I trust you'll take care of the Turtwig."

"What are you doing?!" I rushed forward before several Imprisons locked me into place. I tried to use the Ghost-type energy in Curse, one of the moves I know, but for every Imprison I managed to break, two more latched on to me. As I struggled, Dr. Sahira took Sky out of the room the way she came in.

"Sky has his destiny to follow. Whatever you two were doing before is unimportant, compared to the new disaster that is about to befall us."

"Destiny?" I shouted. "What are you talking about?!"

"Millennia ago, during the time of the kingdoms," The Mismagius began. "A seer prophesied that a human would appear on Naixe, to save the world from disaster and chaos. What's more… one of his aides would be the descendant of a human of the savior from the past… and Sky is that descendant."

… what?

"Tell me - are you a human?" The Mismagius asked.

"N-no!" I shouted. "I'm not a human!"

"Then you must realize that you are holding Sky back from his destiny, and are using his divine powers for your own selfish reasons," The Mismagius's eyes glowed. "And we simply cannot tolerate that. Your life will be put to good use, though."

"W-Wait! What are you saying?!" But I was too late. With a push, all of the Mismagius attacked my mind at once, and I fell to unconsciousness.

* * *

(Vinia)

The campsite was barren, but I was kind of expecting that. After all, the other Venturers wouldn't stick around forever, would they?

The teleport took a lot out of me, so I took a breather while everyone else scouted the camp. After affirming that no, there was no one remaining from yesterday, we started following the tracks.

"You know, they never explained how _long_ the Breaking was going to take," Ken asked, as we walked alongside the long mass of tracks. "Or what we were going to do during it. The Ring is a giant circular Dungeon, right? How are we all going to fit in it?"

I sighed, as Alice once again explained how the Breaking was going to operate. Most of the Pokémon would be rejected by the Mystery Dungeon, weakening it at the cost of pain and illness. Only a few groups would be accepted, and it was their job to clear the entire Dungeon in one shot, breaking the Ring.

"... so, they're going to be there for a while - at least a day for one of the teams to clear the Ring. Reports from other Breakings suggest that the Ring is at least thirty to forty floors long, considering that they managed to get to a waypoint at floor 20 or so before one decided to escape with an Escape Orb while they had the chance."

"What about the other breakers?" Peng asked.

"They never made it back out."

Rings were definitely dangerous. From what Naetle and Glacia said, though, the Rings are a recent phenomenon on Naixe. That means that something happened between Glacia's time and now to cause the Rings.

I groaned. Something new to solve, probably.

We continued jogging along the path. Along the way, I felt some strange disturbance in the air. I constantly felt like I was tilting one way, then another way, and back again. The ground was slowly vibrating under my feet, which was making it hard to read the tracks.

Then, I saw it.

A great, big, glowing golden ring reached limitlessly into the sky - the Ring. It was big enough to comfortably be worn around a mountain range like a gaudy necklace, sparkling with brilliant distortions. Around it was a flickering lavender barrier, which prevented anyone from entering the Ring.

We all gulped.

"R-remind me why we want to mess with that thing, again?!" Ken warbled.

"Land - a big chunk of unexplored Naixe is in that thing. The potential for resources is limitless inside the Ring, and we can expand beyond the few Rings we are already in." Alice explained, a little awestruck herself. "That barrier stops anyone outside of the Ring from going inside, through flying or teleportations. Everything inside is ripe for the picking."

"How… were we going to take that thing down?" Peng whispered. "Are you sure only a few teams are needed to break something so… massive?!"

"Never mind that, look!" I shouted, pointing at a small dot in the distance. It was a little blurry and indistinct, but judging from the small fires around it, there was no mistaking what it was - the camp.

Peng nodded. "We've found it, then - how are we going to get to it, though?" She asked out loud. "We can't just teleport into the middle of the campground, right - won't that cause some suspicions, especially when we aren't with our teammates?"

"There's no point in worrying, Peng - look at the Ring." There was a large crack forming on it, spanning the length of the path we had traveled this morning. "They're already in the middle of the Breaking. We can sneak by undetected."

"Okay… then what are we going to do, then?" Peng asked. "If the Breaking has already started, then how will we get to Night or Captain Falcon - won't they be inside?"

Alice shook her head. "Those chances are slim - Captain Falcon is too useful a pawn to throw into the Ring so haphazardly. He'll take a blow to his prestige… but we won't find him in the Ring. He'll be weakening like almost everyone else is."

"Then we're going to have to find where he is, right - when he's in the middle of weakening it?"

Alice nodded, turning to me. "Yes. Vinia, you have to teleport us to the camp. The longer we stay here, waiting, the more time we'll waste." She looked contrite. "I'm sorry I have to push you so hard, but-"

I shook my head as I geared myself for the Teleport. "Not now, Alice. Just grab me so we can go." Once they grabbed me, I took a deep breath and teleported us near the campsite.

The campsite was almost empty, except for a couple of worried cooks, who were wringing their hands in their worry and powerlessness. We stayed out of their eye, though - better safe than sorry.

"How are we going to find Captain Falcon, though?" Peng whispered to me. "Where are the rest of the Venturers, anyway?"

"I don't know, Peng. They generally have to be close to the Ring to weaken it, but far away enough that they don't accidentally become swallowed by it and Captured - that's the job for the breakers."

"Then, we have to find the exact spot that the Captain is currently weakening the Ring. We have to ask one of these Pokémon… but I don't know if we can trust them…" Ken said. "Ms. Kaili will probably know where he is, though - she's his right hand."

"The snobby Cincinno Milla?" Alice wrinkled her nose. "I'm not sure we can trust her - she's too attached to Captain Falcon, and we're not exactly the most credible of all the people in the Base. To be frank, she probably doesn't trust us."

I then had an epiphany. "But I know someone she _does_ trust - Ms. Kiss."

"The matron of the medical ward?" Alice looked at me with incredulity. "I know she's your teacher, but…"

"They're good friends - if Ms. Kiss asks Milla, she'll probably tell her," I explained. "I can get Ms. Kiss to ask her - Ms. Kiss trusts me enough to not ask questions."

Alice nodded. "Then we'll get comfy and hide here. Go and find your teacher and get her to ask Milla where Captain Falcon is weakening the Ring." I nodded and immediately started searching for my teacher.

It took a while - I wasn't used to searching around this specific camp. They had built it last night, so I didn't know exactly where the medical tent was. Still, with some searching, I managed to find out the location of where we were supposed to be working.

I slowly crept inside the tent, which was slightly shaded. Ms. Kiss usually has much more light in the room, as it soothes and reassures the patients. Something felt… off.

"Vinia?!" Ms. Kiss's voice echoed from the side of the room, and she came into view. "Where were you yesterday? I worried myself sick looking for you!" Then her eyes widened. "You're a… You evolved?!"

"Er… yeah." I rubbed the back of my head, feeling a little contrite. "Sorry, Ms. Kiss. I had some… business to attend to, and I couldn't come along. I evolved, though, and I found my way to the camp anyway." I shook my head. "Still, I have a question. Do you know where Ms. Kaili is?"

Ms. Kiss looked at me quizzically. "Milla?" She tapped her chin. "She's busy handling the paperwork Captain Falcon left behind." Ms. Kiss frowned. "What an irresponsible loaf."

That was surprisingly vitriolic. "Ms. Kiss?"

Ms. Kiss shook her head. "Oh, don't mind me, dear." She brought me to a table of solutions. "Could you separate these headache-relievers by the size of the side-effects, dear? Once the Breaking ends, we're going to have a _lot_ of patients."

I nodded and started sorting the vials of headache relievers. As I sorted, I pondered how I was going to ask Ms. Kiss to get the information from Milla.

"Vinia?" Ms. Kiss looked over my shoulder. "You're mixing the White Herb Extract and the Persim Solution. Please, dear, pay attention."

"Of course, Ms. Kiss," I immediately answered. Wait… now was my chance! "Er, Ms. Kiss?"

"Yes, dear?"

"Can you do a little favor for me?" I asked, carefully.

Ms. Kiss looked at me quizzically. "Of course, dear. What is it?"

"Can you go to Ms. Kaili… Milla, and ask her where Captain Falcon is right now - where he's breaking the Ring?"

Ms. Kiss went very still, and I cursed myself. I was way too forward - I should have introduced it more subtly.

Then Ms. Kiss smiled… and it wasn't like her usual smiles.

"Of course, dear," she said. "In fact… put those vials down, and come with me so that we can ask. Together." Ms. Kiss gently took my hands off the vials and started leading me across the camp.

I was confused… until a sneaking suspicion wormed its way into my head, tearing at my thoughts.

Was Ms. Kiss… another traitor?

She was acting a _lot_ like Myga and Kol were when they first showed the traitorous sides to her back in the clearing yesterday morning.

I concentrated, ready to Teleport away if need be. If necessary, I could wrench my hand away from Ms. Kiss and Teleport away. All I needed was a split second.

Then, winding our way through the more orderly portion of the camp, Ms. Kiss brought me to a large tent.

"Wait here," she commanded. "I'll get the information you want right now." Ms. Kiss flew inside, and I cautiously looked around the corner at the scene that was about to unfold.

Milla was busy looking at paperwork, filling out Captain Falcon's credentials to pieces of paperwork he had already signed and ratified. She looked incredibly bored, but had continued working anyway.

Ms. Kiss flew up to her. "Hello, Milla?"

Milla looked up, looking somewhat grateful for the temporary distraction, and broke out into a beaming smile. "Ilera!" She jumped off the chair she was working on to meet Ms. Kiss on the ground. "It's so nice to see you! I can't tell you how tiring it's been."

Ms. Kiss looked concerned. "Have you been working too hard, Milla? It looks like Captain Falcon has you working around the clock."

Milla shrugged, not very concerned. "Someone has to handle the tedious parts of the paperwork around here, Ilera." She rubbed her hands. "It hurts my hands a little bit, but it's better my hands than the hard-working Captain's."

Ms. Kiss smiled. "About Captain Falcon - I'm actually here for some medicinal business," Ms. Kiss claimed.

Milla's eyes widened. "What happened?! Has his condition worsened from last night?"

Ms. Kiss shook her head. "Oh, nothing happened," she said. "It's just that since he was injured last night, fighting some bandits, I was worried that the Breaking will be exceptionally hard on him. Do you know where he's breaking right now, so I can check on him?"

Milla nodded, looking worried, and pulled out a map. "He's working ten miles off the Northern Rock Face - do you see this small meadow?"

Ms. Kiss nodded. "I see… thank you, Milla. You've been a great help." Ms. Kiss yawned. "I might have to take a small break before I go, though - I've been working around the clock, and it's been rather tiring."

Milla nodded too, letting out a small yawn. "I've been busy too - it's been hectic, with all of the paperwork that had to go into this Breaking."

Ms. Kiss nodded again, yawning a little bit more. "I'll be seeing you soon, Milla. Hopefully, the Breaking will be completed by then, and we can resume normal life"

Milla yawned again, looking remarkably more sleepy than she had been thirty minutes ago. "I suppose I should be getting back to work, then."

Ms. Kiss looked over at her, yawning. "You look too tired to work, you know… it wouldn't hurt if you put it off for a little longer, would it?"

"No… I mean… there's a lot of work…" Milla let out a particularly big yawn. "Well, one little nap couldn't hurt."

Milla started resting against her chair, and soon fell sound asleep, snoring loudly.

"... Vinia, you can come in."

I slowly crept my way inside, and Ms. Kiss was looking at me with a perfectly acute vision.

"My Yawn will hold for a while, but I want to delay her as much as possible. Can you Teleport her to the Base - there shouldn't be any teleporters near there."

"Ms. Kiss, what are you-"

Her eyes sharpened. "Just do it, dear."

I took the sleeping Milla in my arms and teleported to Base, putting her in one of the corners of the Amphitheatre, before teleporting back to Ms. Kiss.

Ms. Kiss took me over to the map she and Milla had been poring over, before pointing to a small spot on the edge of one of the rings. "This is where Captain Falcon is. Does that satisfy what you want?"

Wait… all of this…

"Ms. Kiss… what on Naixe has gotten into you?!" I looked at her in askance. "What was with the Yawn… and the Teleporting… and… and the lies to Ms. Kaili?!"

Ms. Kiss sighed, looking away. "Vinia… tell me, do you know who the previous matron of the Jeden City Base was?"

I shook my head. "I… you told me she was a Mismagius, right? That she was the one that cast an illusion over the windows, to make them look like Jeden City?"

Ms. Kiss nodded. "Dr. Sahira was my role model. She was nice… kind… gentle. She was everything I wanted to be when I grew up, more than my own mother. She helped everyone that came into the medical wing, and everyone would leave with a smile on their face."

"Then… Falcon became the Captain of the Base."

Some inkling of what Ms. Kiss was saying was getting through to me. "He fired her, didn't he?"

Ms. Kiss sneered. "He didn't just _fire_ her, Vinia. He _humiliated_ her - dragged her reputation through the mud, spread lies and slander about her. Even the patients she helped… they began to doubt her, their minds being corrupted by Captain Falcon's treachery."

"Dr. Sahira fled to Helliana Town, her hometown. She wants to come back to Jeden, to spread her message of hope and trust - and Captain Falcon _won't_ let her do that."

"And you know what's the _real_ kicker? That Alice girl… that Tom boy… they get special treatment!" Her hands started shaking, as dark energy roiled through the air. "They get strength and support, while Dr. Sahira was cast aside like trash!"

Some flash of insight came to me. "That Fling… Tom told me you attacked him when you first checked up on him, on the day of the field trip. Was that…"

"Yes, Vinia. I threw my frustrations at him." She sighed. "I know neither of them is to blame, but still… it's unreasonable!"

Ms. Kiss cracked her knuckles. "You've seen the havoc Captain Falcon has wreaked on Jeden, haven't you. You wanted to become a Venturer, and he denied you. He's attacked Ghost-types mindlessly, except for the ones he _favors_. He even allowed an Inverted Pokémon - a _monster_ \- into the Base!"

I stayed silent.

"He can't stay. The past ten years of his leadership have been ten years too long." Ms. Kiss grinned dementedly. "That's why it's ending, _today_!"

"What - what are you _talking_ about?" However, contrary to my words, I knew where this was going. The strange feeling was growing in my stomach… a nervous sort of apprehension.

"Falcon provided us an opportunity on a golden platter - the Breaking," Ms. Kiss explained. "The Breaking will weaken everyone and rob them of all their strength. They'll be relying on _us_ for the healing they need.

"And if we _sabotage_ them…" Ms. Kiss grinned. "Falcon can be brought down."

"Y-you're crazy!" I countered. "This is a death wish. Once Captain Falcon's gone, what's stopping everyone from attacking you for treason?!"

"Because I'm not the only one angry with him," Ms. Kiss explained. "You remember the riot two nights ago, right? A Rockruff was revealed to have died, and Captain Falcon covered it up."

Ivan…

"Trust in Falcon is at an all-time low - and more than a few people have been calling for Falcon to be replaced, the Rockruff's Lycanroc brother being one of the loudest. And we have a candidate for the new Captain of the Base, who has agreed with the coup. He'll protect us from those still loyal to Falcon."

A bad feeling was growing over me. "Who is this… new Captain?"

"Rax, the leader of Team Cruel." Ms. Kiss said. "He's a little… wild, but he's shown a willingness to 'dethrone' Falcon - and, at the very least, he's promised to allow Ghost-types back into Jeden. He's good enough for me."

Rax… was a bit of a jerk, and rude… but there were worse alternatives.

I nodded. "I have a bone to pick with Captain Falcon, too."

Ms. Kiss nodded. "Look at the Ring," she commanded. I obeyed and saw large cracks on it, much larger than the cracks when we were first there. "The Ring will have broken completely within an hour or so - the five teams Falcon chose are powerful enough to clear it by then. That's when we strike."

Ms. Kiss started floating back to the medical tent. "Meet me where Captain Falcon is weakening the Ring in an hour. That's when he'll be at his most vulnerable - and that's when we'll attack."

I slowly nodded.

"I'll prepare everything - you just get yourself ready, and do anything you need to."

I said nothing but teleported back to where everyone else was waiting for me. I had a _lot_ to tell them.

* * *

An hour later, we were at the location Ms. Kiss had specified. Ms. Kiss looked surprised when she saw Ken and looked nearly ready to attack him, but when she realized that he wanted to depose his father as much as everyone else did, she gladly let him into the ranks.

There… were a _lot_ of Venturers unsatisfied with Captain Falcon's reign. Team Shulk had chafed under his more stringent rules, Team Cruel was unsatisfied with his policies… the list went on and on. Captain Falcon made _way_ too many enemies, and it sounded like it was only recently that they've decided to band up.

Slowly, as the power of the Ring weakened thanks to the breaking teams, Ms. Kiss healed our allies that were taking a rest and gave them a headache reliever. But only to the revolutionaries - not the loyalists.

I healed as well, feeding Mental Herbs to our allies, and Alice, Peng, and Ken did their best to help. The loyalists, those still loyal to Captain Falcon… we ignored them completely.

There was a slow suspicion growing among the loyalists, due to this. Then a few of them caught wind from one of our revolutionaries being a _little_ too loud. But by the time they processed this and tried to raise an alarm, it was already too late.

The large, magnificent golden Ring floating in the air… it broke in naught but a second. As the dimensional shards of light glittered in the air, a shockwave that echoed throughout the land. Within a second, a whole new swathe of land was up for civilization. The Breaking was complete.

And with that great cracking sound of the shockwave, the attack began.

There was chaos. Venturer fought venturer, and many people fell unconscious to the scuffle tiny puddles of blood everywhere. For my part, I healed any of the revolutionaries I came across, making sure they could fight. The others helped the revolutionary effort, firing attacks into the masses and making sure that the loyalists didn't gain too much traction.

But with all of our advantages… it wasn't that hard. We had momentum, and we kept it up for the entirety of the battle. The loyalists were weak and ill from the Breaking, while Ms. Kiss and I kept on healing the revolutionaries as the battle raged on.

We _were_ going to win - the conclusion was foregone.

A single battle… was a single battle all it was going to take?

We made our way to where Captain Falcon was supposed to be at the Breaking. He was fighting the revolutionaries, punching and kicking without much care.

Suddenly, Rax the Volcarona, leader of Team Cruel engaged him in one-on-one combat. They fought beak and wing, scrambling for ground and not caring where their attacks landed.

Captain Falcon steadily got faster as the battle raged on, speeding up and landing more and more blows on Rax. That was until Rax locked him to the ground with a Whirlwind and a Gust, before slamming him full-force with a Hurricane.

Captain Falcon screamed in pain as the Hurricane tore into his flesh without mercy. Cuts appeared on his body as his blood spilled into the air. I felt the need to throw up.

Captain Falcon managed to stand up, ignoring the pain, and went for one final attack. But, for once, he had no power. He had injuries from his battle with Ken last night, no matter their size, and the Breaking tore into his stamina and power.

This battle with Rax… it took everything else out of him. All Rax had to do was blow him to the side, with one particularly large flap and a Gust to knock him off balance.

Captain Falcon fell, and Rax was victorious.

Then _she_ appeared.

Night looked upon the carnage with distasteful eyes, before lifting Captain Falcon's unconscious body with psychic powers. Rax narrowed her eyes at her.

"Falcon has run his course as a Captain, hasn't he?" She idly mentioned.

"Put him down, Night. I'm not done with him." Rax commanded, Bug-type energy spiraling into the air and burning itself into the wind.

"Neither am I… Rax, was it?" She fixed an amused look at him. "You'll be getting a visit from me rather soon - we have _much_ to talk about." With that, she took a look at me. "After all, you have criminals in your midst."

She then teleported away.

Rax turned to where we were viewing the events, noticing our presence for the first time. "You… you're friends with _Merla_ , aren't you?" The Bug-type Wind shot toward me, buzzing menacingly in the air.

At this point, there was no reason to stick around. With that, we teleported away.

After all, we no longer had a lead… and if what Night said was true, that we were being branded as criminals… it wasn't safe here anymore.

* * *

(Tom)

Merla and I walked through the wilderness. I was explaining to her what I understood happened.

"So we... died, then. And after we died, we were put into these bodies?"

I nodded. "That's what Shade said, anyway."

"Shade?" Merla asked, looking rather curious.

"The guy whose body I took over. He's still in here, talking to me."

That reminds me… Shade, where are we going?

" _Go to a nearby stream or body of water, and start following it. Towns and cities are usually around these landmarks_."

I relayed this to Merla, who looked a little pensive.

"He's right, in a way - Water Pokémon can only live in them, so they're a quick source of meat, and free water is always a plus." She sighed, wiggling her legs around. "They're a lot thicker than my Larvesta legs, that's for sure. I'm a lot slower with these."

Soon enough, we encountered a stream, as night began to fall. Neither of us felt tired, most likely due to our Ghost-typing.

" _That works to our favor, you know._ " Shade reminded me. " _We can use the night to our advantage if we ever get into trouble._ "

As we went downriver, I felt a strange sensation crawl across my back, as though someone was placing a target on my back. I couldn't quite place it… but it felt like I was going to be attacked.

As I got onto my guard, Merla soon following after having sensed the same thing, Shade made a rather snide remark. " _You know, you can't exactly fight in this form - neither of you two can_."

What do you-

But before I could actually ask Shade what he meant when he said we couldn't fight, we were finally attacked. Two Frillish, a male and a female leaped out of the water and started attacking us, latching their suckers onto us and draining us with Absorb.

I struggled and attacked the Frillish as best as I could, before deciding to charge up energy for a Hex. But the Ghost-type aura wouldn't obey my commands, and only dissipated against the Frillish's damp skin.

As the Frillish mockingly chittered toward me, I took a look at Merla, who wasn't faring much better against her Frillish. We jumped back as the Frillish continued to advance.

Shade sighed in my head. " _Look, Tom, I don't have any moves a Litwick would know. You're going to have to practice my moves when you're back to safety._ "

But I'm in danger! Are you telling me to just run away?!

As I dodged a few of the Frillish's swipes, Shade mulled it over. " _You don't_ have _to run away, Tom. There is_ one _ability that I have, that's rather instinctual. Try to imagine yourself melting away, into a pile of goo."_

I did as Shade did, pretending my limbs were made of chunky soup. Unfortunately, something like that wasn't so easy to do when your life was on the line and a Frillish was trying to eat your face off.

The Frillish then knocked me to the ground, locking me in place with its chilling stare. For the first time in a while, I felt genuine fear.

…

Then I found myself in some strange state of not being there. I was _present_ , for sure, but had no weight, no mass… I could see, but I had no eyes.

Shade, what happened?

" _You melted, Tom. You melted into that very confused Frillish's shadow. And now that you're in, tell me… what are the Frillish's power?"_

The Frillish? It can wrap its arms around an opponent to poison them and suffocate them… why are you asking?

" _Okay, now, imagine yourself jumping_ "

I obeyed and tumbled out of the Frillish's shadow causing it to chitter and jump at me again. I rolled away, keenly aware of the Frillish's poisonous spines on its 'arms'.

" _Good, Tom, you went into its shadow. Now, imagine yourself as a mirror image of the Frillish_."

What?

" _Just do it, Tom!_ "

Shade hadn't failed me yet. I closed my eyes quickly and tried to imagine myself as the Frillish.

I'm the Frillish… I'm the Frillish…

Then something changed, _snapped_ inside me, and I opened my eyes.

The Frillish was looking at me with a face awash with confusion. The Frillish, in the middle of its own battle with Merla, turned to stare at me, confused.

I lifted my arms… my Frillish arms.

" _Congratulations, Tom! You are now a Frillish! Be proud of yourself!_ "

Of course, the Frillish I was facing soon realized that _I_ wasn't him, and was 'just another Frillish'. It leaped at me, trying to sink its claws into me.

I wasn't afraid, though, for some reason I couldn't quite pinpoint. While before I was blindly fumbling around, trying not to get hit, I knew where the Frillish was going to strike - my Frillish 'cloak'.

As the Frillish lunged at me, I sidestepped it, before slamming my own claws down on the shoulder portion of the tentacle.

I then, out of some Frillish instinct, pumped a smoky poison into the Frillish, causing it to wildly struggle around before it fell unconscious.

" _Not too bad, Tom, for your first battle in my form._ " Shade nodded.

Thanks, Shade.

" _No problem. Merla's taken out the other Frillish too._ " I turned to see Merla hacking some dragon-like breath on her Frillish, causing it to fall down in pain.

"That didn't feel quite right," Merla said. "That was supposed to be a Dragon Breath, but it was more of a Dragon Cough _._ "

" _She'll get the hang of it_."

We unceremoniously dumped the two Frillish into the water. They hopefully wouldn't drown - they were Water-types, after all.

As we slowly got back to our path, Merla stretched herself out. "Tom, what exactly _am_ I? I don't think I'm any Pokemon species that's been previously recorded."

"Shade said you're a Drone."

Merla looked at me in confusion. "I've never heard of a 'Drone'. What is it?"

Good question. Shade, what's a Drone?

" _A Drone is one of Dad's minions. They do his dirty work when he wants them to, and they make up his army, which he has for… some reason, I don't know, he never uses it._ " Shade made a shrugging noise in my mind. " _Dad made them in his own image, and they all contain an iota of his power - nothing he couldn't recover within a few seconds though._ "

Modeled off your dad… who is your dad, Shade? Merla's new form looks nothing like me.

" _He's not_ really _my dad, but he's the closest thing I have to it. My 'dad' is Giratina_ "

… Giratina? The apocalypse bringer?

" _Oh, uh, please don't bring that up in front of him. He doesn't like hearing anyone mention that - it's taboo back home._ "

"Tom?" Merla asked, bringing my attention back to her.

"Oh, right. A Drone is one of Giratina's creations. They're little versions of him. They do his bidding and stuff, I guess."

"Giratina…?" Merla looked at herself. "I'm a Legendary Pokemon now?!"

" _Not really. She has the same kind of powers as Dad does, but they're nowhere near as powerful as his."_

"Sort of, Merla," I translated. Merla looked terribly unimpressed as we walked down the river.

"What was with you during your battle, anyway? You looked like a Frillish."

Shade?

" _Marshadow powers. Once you go into someone's shadow, you can mimic and understand their movements and powers. Once you're a shadow version of them, the process is complete. And if you spend enough time in the form and practice it enough, you'll eventually surpass the original._ "

"I can mimic other Pokémon's powers if I enter their shadows, Merla. I can copy their form, too." I waved around my Frillish arms. Shade, how do I turn back?

" _Personally, I find it easy to just jump into a shadow and jump back out. The transformation back becomes automatic._ "

Spying a nearby tree, I leaped toward it, before remembering the odd, fearful sensation I had before melting into the shadow during the battle with the Frillish. It wasn't long before I melted back into the shadows. With a small jump, I got back out as my normal Marshadow form.

"My _normal Marshadow form_."

As I walked back to Merla, she looked pensive again. "Do we have a destination in mind?" Merla asked out of the blue.

"I don't think so." Shade, is there any place you want to visit?

" _My priority is to get you as strong as possible and to unleash your hidden powers, whatever they are. Then you have to take on the thing that killed you - the Ahriman_."

The what?

" _..."_

This is going to be a long story, isn't it?

" _Get comfortable._ "


	20. 20 - A Legendary Meeting

(Pillar)

The heat of Steam Cave was stifling. Various Fire-Types poked around the air, looking at us with a vague sense of curiosity.

We shuffled through the Mystery Dungeon, which gave a strange air to everything.

I stretched and punched a couple of Slugma that walked a little too close to us. I felt a little sorry- they looked like real Pokémon.

But they're only constructs, so I banished the thought from my mind as we continued onward.

Compared to Night's Prison or even the other few Mystery Dungeons I've been in, Steam Cave was relatively easy. Oh, sure, my weakness to Fire and Ground-types is annoying, but I can manage if I need to.

Of course, it was our best bet to find Uxie. Once Glacia woke up that morning and told us what had happened, we started making our way to Fogbound Lake. It took a little bit of time to convince Gel, but eventually, he figured that we didn't have any other way to go forward. It was as good a shot as any.

The Miasma disappearing from within me helped since we weren't as on edge anymore. And I was back to _normal_ \- or, as normal as someone like me can be.

Without the Miasma attacking my thoughts and casting doubts into my mind, I felt a sense of ease I hadn't felt in _years_. I felt like I was myself - different than what I was before the Miasma Inverted me, but still only myself.

Traveling through the continent was interesting. There were no settlements - no cities, no towns, and no people. The continent had been abandoned by Pokémon for a long time, so we couldn't get any help from the nonexistent locals.

We traveled down the length of the mountain, encountering a few Mystery Dungeons along the way. We cleared them rather easily - the mountain ones were no trouble at all.

Once we got through the mountain ranges, we entered a forested area, blanketed in a heavy fog. After a lot of pushing, we managed to make our way to a statue of Groudon, which had a stone missing from where its heart would be. Koga and I easily figured out what we needed to do to find the Fogbound Lake - insert Groudon's missing 'heart' back in.

It took a few days of searching the forest to find the missing piece - days in which Gel grew visibly more and more frustrated. But finally, by a stroke of hidden luck, we found it on the fourth day of looking - a beautiful ruby that weighed half as much as Glacia did.

After taking it to the statue of Groudon and inserting it into its 'heart', there was a faint rumbling sound echoing around the forest before the fog swirled and swirled away, revealing a miraculous sight - a large basin of water in the sky, propped up by a Mystery Dungeon.

It was only when we were passing by the waterfalls did I truly understand that Glacia's dream was _true_. Oh sure, when there's no other option, you'll take the risk, but seeing a lake defy the laws of logic cemented the idea of Glacia's, for lack of a better word, talent.

Except for the fact that she hadn't had a dream like it since, and not for the lack of trying. By the second day of looking for the gleaming red ruby, Glacia was aggressively taking naps to get an answer from 'Necrozma'.

She wasn't getting answers, though - her dreams were incredibly, absolutely normal. It took seven nap-divinations to fail for her to understand that.

Either way, we started crawling through the Steam Cave and were having little-to-no trouble conquering our way through it. Not even the Camerupt we passed posed too much of a threat, especially with the type coverage Koga provided for our team.

Eventually, with a lot of care and trouble, we made our way to the end of the Dungeon. Nothing bad had happened, and nothing had seriously gone wrong, except for one or two delays.

It felt easy - _too_ easy.

We geared ourselves up for a fight at the end - for what exact reason, we didn't know. Call it instinct, call it something else, but we knew that there was going to be _some_ battle waiting for us at the end of the Dungeon.

And _oh_ boy!

A Groudon - or, at the very least, something that looked like one - waited for us at the end of the cavern. It flickered a little bit, which was a little odd, but the tremors it sent our way were incredibly real, and dangerous for someone of my typing.

We didn't waste any time trying to reason with it - after all, it was trying to kill us. We started our counterattack only a few seconds after the first tremor.

During the Mystery Dungeons we had gone through in the past couple of weeks, we were learning how to communicate and work together more effectively. Glacia immediately started her long-range coverage for us, sending a volume of Swifts and Shadow Balls to keep the Groudon at bay.

Koga and Gel had the type Advantage, so they were dealing the most amount of damage to it. The Water Pulses and Water Shurikens dug deep into the scaly flesh of the Groudon, and Gel's flash freezes started locking the Groudon into place.

As for me, I was the distraction.

I dodged one of the Groudon's frantic swipes as I shot a Bullet Punch toward it. For a legendary, it was surprisingly easy to deal with. I thought they were of a strength that 'surpassed all Pokémon', only to be rivaled by each other.

I was even able to avoid all of the Ground-type moves the Groudon sent to me, like the Earthquakes and Magnitudes. The Magnet Rise I had activated allowed me to weave easily between the Precipice Blades and float above the tremors.

I punched the Groudon in the stomach, and it doubled over, before roaring in anger again and sending a Fire Blast point-blank at my face. With some difficulty, I was able to mitigate the damage, but it didn't help that we had just gotten through a Mystery Dungeon.

The Groudon's counterattack was swift and merciless and the heat it was emitting was melting the ice Gel was creating and evaporating the water. If we weren't careful, we would lose right off of the bat.

Then, in a feat of miraculous energy, Glacia leaped onto the Groudon's legs, before jumping onto its arms and landing on the Groudon's face. With a glowing rush of energy behind her, Glacia slammed her glowing dark fangs on the Groudon's face. It roared and flailed, trying to knock her off.

Glacia's distraction proved the reversal we needed. I hit the Groudon with an uppercut (knocking Glacia off) and caused it to recoil. I then slammed a Hammer Arm onto its head, nearly knocking it off its feet.

We went for an all-out offensive, using all the attacks we could at once on the prone Groudon. Water-type, Normal-Type, Ice-Type - we used all of them and whittled down the Groudon's health as much as possible.

And finally, it collapsed.

Then, for some reason, it started flickering and turning transparent. Glacia's brow furrowed in confusion.

"Do you guys have any idea what's happening?" She asked, earning curious looks from all of us. "I don't think it's supposed to be flickering like that," she finally said.

Then, with a small burst of light, the Groudon exploded into motes of light, which faded away within only a few seconds.

The tremors and rumblings stopped, before a fairly boyish voice echoed from the cavern where the Groudon originally came from.

"Come here - I know you mean no real harm." The voice, acting fairly casually, said. "The illusion will not appear anymore."

Gel narrowed his eyes. "Illusion?" he echoed. "Was that what the Groudon was?"

"Yes. My apparition is my guardian. It protects me and stops anyone from entering my domain." The voice affirmed. "If you couldn't defeat it, you had no place coming to my resting grounds. I see that you mean no harm, so please, enter."

We looked at each other. Given that the 'illusion' just tried to kill us, none of us were particularly eager to do as the voice said, but it was from where we were going initially, anyway.

We slowly, wearily walked to where the voice was coming from. Then we saw _it_.

The lake - the Fogbound Lake.

A small yellow Pokemon was waiting for us there, its eyes closed and patient. It smiled as we came into the room.

Glacia gulped. "Are you - are you Uxie?" She asked, her eyes darting around.

Uxie nodded. "Yes, I am Uxie. And you have come here looking for information, haven't you? After all, the Time Gear isn't even a myth now."

Glacia shook her head. "We're not here for the Time Gear." She affirmed. "We came here because we need to know how we're going to be returning to Naixe."

Uxie slowly nodded. "I see." He brokered a small smile. "Before I tell you, would you care to take a small rest, so that we may talk? Guarding the Time Gear is weary on my soul."

Glacia nodded, ignoring Gel's angry look. "We'd be happy to," she said, sitting down and groaning. "We have a lot of injuries thanks to that battle."

Uxie bowed again. "I must apologize again for the trouble I made for you. I've kept the Groudon Illusion active for millennia now. It wards off intruders." He sighed. "Intruders that no longer come."

"It's been rather lonely." Uxie finally said, looking off into the distance. "I don't know how long it's been since I've seen my brother and sister."

Koga shifted on the ground where he sat next Glacia. "You're talking about Mesprit and Azelf, right?" Uxie nodded. "Why don't you go and visit them, then?"

"Because I must guard the Time Gear," Uxie said, gesturing behind himself.

In the middle of the lake, a sphere of light shone. The sphere of light pulsed and spun - and in the middle of the sphere was a small blue-green gear.

"The Time Gear is one of the most important artifacts in the world," Uxie affirmed. "If it fell into the wrong hands, catastrophic events could occur - not to mention the simple act of removing it from the lake itself."

We all edged a little farther away from it.

"There are, however, those that would like to steal it, regardless of the consequences that may follow. No matter what time I live in, the Time Gear must remain safe. And so, even if it pains me, I must remain here." Uxie sighed again. "But that isn't why you came here, correct? You came here for information."

Glacia nodded. "Yes - but before we ask the question we came here for," The rest of us looked at Glacia warily as she leaned forward eagerly. "Could you answer some of my questions?!" She practically salivated.

Uxie nodded. "I hold an abundance of knowledge within me. I will answer as many of your questions as I can."

Gel looked at Glacia, irritated. "Glacia, we don't have time to ask frivolous questions." He turned back to Uxie. "Uxie, how can we return-"

"Did Gardevinia exist in real life?!" Glacia interrupted, peering at Uxie with great intensity. "Or was she just a myth?"

Uxie looked at Glacia curiously. "Gardevinia?" He asked. "Is that the Gardevoir who claimed to have been 'knighted' by us?"

Glacia flushed. "Yes?" Her face looked downcast. "So, she was a fraud?"

"Not entirely. She _did_ meet Cresselia after she was running away from some Ghost-types that were pursuing her. Once Cresselia scared them away, the Gardevoir fled. I assume the memory warped itself in her mind - I, for one, never met her."

Gel interrupted. "That's great and all," he said insincerely. "But can you _please_ get back to telling us how we can get back to Naixe?!"

Uxie nodded. "There are methods for getting to that particular continent." He affirmed. "But - and this is an idle curiosity - why are you in such a rush? Given the chaos that the continent is in now, it doesn't seem wise to go there. Surely the Air, Mist, and Water Continents are more hospitable-"

"Chaos?" Koga interrupted, slightly causing an irksome frown on Uxie's face. "What chaos are you talking about?"

"The chaos that has reigned for well over a thousand years," Uxie clarified. "After the Kingdom Wars, no stable government has formed in that area."

"But the Venturers-"

"Each rule over a city-state. Not an actual unified nation." Uxie clarified. "It's not that safe in Naixe - laws are subject to change and the struggle for survival has robbed most Pokemon of their altruism. The Kingdoms were large enough to respect each other, instead of the jockeying each city is going through currently."

We were silent.

"Naixe is that bad, huh." Glacia finally remarked, a morose look on her face.

"The other continents are much safer, especially now that they've dealt with their threats," Uxie nodded. "The meteor, Bittercold, Dark Matter - they've all been dealt with in their own time."

"What?"

"It's nothing that matters to you, Glacia," Uxie unsuccessfully pacified. "Either way, those continents are now much more peaceful and hospitable. Their technology is also progressing rapidly - in the past decade or so, they've learned how to manufacture steel at a somewhat efficient rate. Crime is at an all-time low as well."

"That sounds lovely," Gel answered. "But-"

"Hold on," Koga leaned forward. "The Kingdom Wars?" His eyes narrowed. "I've never heard of them."

Gel groaned. "Oh, come on!"

Uxie nodded. "A few millennia ago, the last of the Kingdoms fell, starting with the Kingdom of Eonia, because of a small series of wars. The wars - the Kingdom Wars - it tore the Kingdoms apart. People have forgotten about them, due to the poor records of the time."

Uxie turned to Glacia, who had turned white, and peered at her behind closed eyelids. "I'm well aware of what you are, princess," he finally said. "And I can already tell what you are thinking. Perhaps you are right, but you can't do much about it now that you are in this period. Your disappearance might have started the chaos, but the wars have concluded, and the Kingdoms are long dead."

Uxie turned to Gel. "You wished to know how to return to Naixe?"

"YES!" Gel shouted, having run dry of his patience long ago.

Uxie brought one of his jeweled tails to his face as he floated pensively. "Let me see..." He muttered. "There are ways to get from this continent to Naixe, but very few of them are accessible in this time and place."

"What do you mean?" Glacia pressed.

"The obvious idea would be to take a boat across the sea, but none of you know how to navigate with it." Uxie began laying out the possibilities. "Even if I gave you all of the knowledge you needed, it wouldn't last long enough to reach Naixe, as the rapids between here and there would shred any boat you could build to pieces."

That news wasn't very reassuring.

"And even if you got past those rapids, you would come across _it_." Uxie grimaced.

"It?" I looked at Uxie with curiosity.

"The zeroth Ring - the one that surrounds all of Naixe," Uxie said plainly. "It's too large to break without an army of Pokemon at your side. All envoys to Naixe for trade have been stopped cleanly by it. It can be teleported over, though."

Uxie sighed.

"But you'd have to have crossed the Ring earlier to Teleport over it. You all came through a Teleportation yourselves - though, a Teleport in name only, as you were all flung along time and space, more or less."

Gel growled under his breath. "Vinia." The anger was clear in his voice.

Uxie sighed. "I have never been able to use Teleport, though, I have tried. My abilities don't work that way. Perhaps in another time, in another place."

"So what are we left with?" Koga finally asked, leaning forward. "I assume the zeroth Ring swallows all of the vehicles, and Teleportation isn't an option we have at our disposal."

"So all you are left with," Uxie concluded. "Is the more unorthodox methods of travel." Uxie raised his hands. "The power of the Legendaries."

There was a small silence.

"In this instance, the Legendary Birds are powerless, as well as the Legendary Beasts. They are strong, but they hold no power over space and time, which is what you'll need." Uxie explained. "For this, we can remove the aid of many, many other Legendaries, but luckily, we still have some options."

"For starters, we can knock Hoopa off of the list." Uxie listed. "There's no purpose in asking it for help - it's gallivanting about in Naixe, having entered to revel in the chaos. Without a way to communicate with Hoopa, there's no point in asking. I'm not sure Hoopa would be willing to cooperate, anyway."

Glacia's eyes widened. "Hoopa is in Naixe?!" She whispered in shock.

Uxie nodded. "They fanned tensions during the Wars, hoping that they would all be too distracted to notice Hoopa's thefts. And if they did, they would blame it on each other instead of Hoopa." Uxie sighed. "Hoopa is a nightmare to deal with, in all honesty."

s

"How do you know all this?" Gel interrupted. "You are the Being of Knowledge - does that mean that you have information in your head, or are you omniscient, or-"

Uxie sighed. "Being the Being of Knowledge is a curious existence. You have access to all piece of knowledge in the world - however, there are caveats. Pieces of information that only a few people are aware of - they are like individual grains of sand on a beach to me. I have access to it, but I have to find it through arduous searching."

"What's more, I, like any other, can fall prey to misinformation," Uxie admitted, a blush on his face. "I have been tricked before. It isn't a pleasant existence."

"What do you mean?" I asked, incredulous. "You - tricked?!"

"I mean that knowledge that has been known for a long time, that many people know, I have immediate access to. But other pieces of information can elude me for some time, and lies can trick me as they can any other."

"I see." Koga looked uncomfortable.

"Do not think of me as an Omniscient Being - I have failed before." Uxie's eyes turned dark. "It almost cost the world time itself, after all."

There was a weight settling over the lake, as it had never before. It was clear that they were venturing into territory that was sensitive to Uxie."

Uxie got back on track. "As for the other Legendaries - Darkrai is another Pokémon that can travel through time and space-"

"Darkrai?!" Glacia's eyes shot wide open. "Isn't he the one that tried to stop time?"

"Ah, so Naetle told you about his adventures," Uxie nodded. "That's not the only issue, though."

"The fact that Darkrai tried to turn the world into a living nightmare isn't the issue?!"

"It's not the _only_ issue, Glacia." Uxie tried to calm Glacia down. "There's more. For the past few millennia, after he tried to stop time - Darkrai has gone missing."

"Missing? You let him go missing?!"

Uxie's brow furrowed. "We didn't _let_ him go missing, Glacia." He said sharply. "We looked for him for decades, but we couldn't find anything. He wasn't lost, or hidden - for the information would be available to me. He's been, for lack of a better word, erased from existence."

The silence was deafening.

"Gone." Uxie clarified. "He's nowhere on the planet, and I don't know why - but perhaps, with all the events occurring over the past year, there's a reason for it."

"So, he's out, then," Gel answered, looking tired. "Are there any other Legendaries we can ask the aid of?"

"Celebi can take you to Naixe, but she is currently busy with her task there - she does not know of your plight, and can't come to your aid. Jirachi can take you there as well, and for the past few centuries, he was accessible to those in the Water Continent. Unfortunately, after too many Pokémon badgered him for wishes, he returned to his birthplace of Star Cave and sealed himself away."

Uxie sighed. "So, all who remain that can get you back to Naixe are the Creation Trio," Uxie answered. "They aren't inaccessible or missing, but they are perhaps the hardest beings in the universe to gain access to."

"What will we have to do, Uxie?" Glacia instead asked.

Uxie offered up a smile. "I see you are determined. That'll do you well." Uxie sighed. "The three are accessible, but only barely. To see Dialga, you must travel to the Hidden Land and climb Temporal Tower. Unfortunately, Lapras, the guide to the Hidden Land, has been dead for many years. It is not available to you."

"Palkia resides in the Spatial Rift, a separate dimension that he controls alone. Its location varies day by day. Luckily, though, it isn't completely random." Uxie smiled. "Palkia has a method of choosing where the Spatial Rift is. It will take a month, but he'll travel back to the Grass Continent. You can meet him and persuade him to let you go to Naixe."

That sounded good to me, but it was met with an instant veto from Gel. "My sister is back in Naixe, Uxie," he said. "And I'm not going to sit around for a month while I wait for Palkia to show himself. Strawberry is still in danger."

Uxie looked solemnly at them. "Then there is a third option - though, I do not truly understand your rush. You sister isn't in immediate danger, Gel."

Gel's eyes flashed. "As if!" he muttered. "With Night and the Ahriman running around in Naixe, there's nowhere she'll be safe."

Uxie opened his mouth to say something, then closed it. I got that strange feeling I get whenever that thing's name is mentioned - that someone was calling for something that was no longer within me.

"The Ahriman," Uxie whispered. "That name is unfamiliar to me. Could you please explain to me what you mean?"

(Looking back on it, perhaps that was the first sign something was going to go wrong. After all, Uxie needed something explained to him?)

Glacia sighed. "The Ahriman is this _thing_ ," Glacia struggled. "It controls the Miasma, which is a thing that goes into people and turns them evil. The Miasma is - it's not everywhere, but it _can_ be."

"I see," Uxie whispered. "The Ahriman," he repeated.

Every time Uxie muttered the name, I felt a sense of unease grow within my soul.

"Uxie, could you please stop saying that name?" I asked as politely as I could.

Uxie turned to me, voice snappy. "I'll do whatever I please, Pillar!"

I shrunk back - but a larger sense of unease, unrelated to the Miasma and the Ahriman, was growing within me.

Koga, though, was faster on his trigger. He stood up, a small Water Shuriken in his hand. "You're not Uxie." He claimed. "At least, not _just_ Uxie."

"What are you _talking_ about?!" Uxie demanded, turning to Koga. "Sit back down so that we can talk about the Ahriman!" The unease grew.

Gel looked suspiciously. "Weren't you going to explain how to get back to Naixe, Uxie?" He asked. "About the third member of the Creation Trio?"

"I'll explain no such thing!" Uxie raged, as the water on top of the lake began to ripple. "You've barged into my lake and demanded information from me! Why should I tell you _anything_?!"

Then I saw it. The faintest wisp…

… of Miasma.

"Oh, _no_ ," I whispered as the bad feeling grew in my stomach. I stared at the wisp of darkness in abject horror, as it floated innocently through the air.

Koga, though, caught it as well. "The Miasma." he too whispered, before whipping out his normal Water Shurikens. "Uxie, what is the meaning of this?!"

" _Get out!_ " Uxie roared. "You're giving me a splitting headache, so _get_ _out!_ " Psychic power began cocooning itself around us.

All of us stood up, gearing ourselves for a battle. Miasma, no longer a single wisp or two, swirled around Uxie. Strangely, though, he wasn't turning Inverted. Uxie had, around himself, formed a cocoon of psychic energy.

" _Leave_!" Uxie bellowed. "Take the Time Gear and _leave_!"

I was bemused. "What?!"

"I can't hold him off for much longer!" Then, I saw it - tiny cracks appearing in the cocoon protecting Uxie. "He's not going to bother coaxing me to his side - he'll take me by force! Take the Time Gear to the World Abyss and find Giratina! He's the one who can take you to Naixe!"

"The World Abyss?!" Glacia asked, in a ready position. "What are you talking about?"

"Take the Time Gear!" Uxie shouted as the Miasma swirled darker around him, the cracks growing larger. "It's not safe here anymore! Take it and leave for the World Abyss - go directly southwest until you reach the coast, before the forest! There's a hole there that will lead to Giratina!"

The cocoon around Uxie shattered, and the Miasma flooded in.

"Take the Time Gear and _run_!"

We stood there, transfixed, as the Miasma enveloped Uxie's form. Then Glacia jolted into action.

"The Time Gear!"

I reacted before I knew it. I flew across the Lake, disturbing the Volbeat and Illumise fluttering in the moonlight. I sped to the Time Gear and with a large swipe, grabbed it.

There was shaking and groaning as the sphere of light enveloping the Time Gear disappeared, causing the lake to darken. The Time Gear dulled, looking a thousand times poorer than it had previously.

Then the shaking continued as a water droplet turned gray.

Then another, and another…

The lake was turning colorless, spawning from the point of the Time Gear. I fled as fast I could back to the shore, where the Miasma was now a thick cloud. I could barely see everyone's forms through the mist.

"I have the Time Gear!" I shouted, startling them. "Let's go!"

I ran back through where we had fought the Groudon, the remnants of our battle still there. All of us ran back down Steam Cave, the Mystery Dungeon collapsing when the encroaching colorlessness mixed with it.

As the Mystery Dungeon fell around us, my metallic heart pounded in my chest. In my arms was perhaps the most valuable object in the world - an object that the Legendaries themselves believe vital to the world's continued health.

I clutched it tighter and, after only ten or so minutes of running, we came across Steam Cave's entrance. We dashed madly for the exit, as the colorlessness was moving nearly as fast as we were.

With one final lunge, we cleared the threshold and escaped to the forest outside, before continuing to run, only to stop when the tide of colorlessness finally came to a stop as well.

We turned to see a stomach-wrenching sight.

It was bizarre. The droplets of water from the waterfalls that came from the lake above no longer fell. The wind had paused, the light no longer shining. The cave, the lake - they were dead.

"W-what?!" Glacia was blubbering and shaking. Koga had fallen onto his rear, unable to process what was happening. Gel looked confused before a look of horror penetrated his demeanor.

This was stopped time, the frozen world.

Then a thing moved. A small figure flew out from the top of the lake, navigating through the frozen Volbeat and Illumise. It gently floated down to them.

Uxie - Inverted.

" _ **G**_ _iv_ _ **e**_ _ **m**_ **e** _t_ _ **h**_ _e_ _ **T**_ _i_ _ **me G**_ _ea_ _ **r,**_ " he demanded, holding out a hand.

Many things were going through my head at my point. Fear, surprise, more fear…

Then I went and said something very, very stupid.

"No."

Uxie's eyes, clenched for millennia, wrenched their way open.

Images, scenes, nightmares, they all flashed in my head as information poured itself into my brains. I cried out and fell over, as the Inverted Uxie floated toward me, puppeted by the Miasma that surrounded it.

Then Glacia attacked Uxie with a Shadow Ball. The controlled Uxie batted it away without pause, but that opened the floodgates. The rest of my team - Glacia, Gel, Koga - they attacked Uxie with every attack in their arsenal. It was met with a barrier, but Uxie's approach slowed to a crawl.

I got up and took another look at Uxie's open eyes. Information poured into me, but I stayed up.

"You won't win." I promised. Then I fled, with everyone following behind me.

It was another long period of running. My mind burned with all of the images the Inverted Uxie seared into my mind as we ran, and I clutched the Time Gear as close to myself as possible.

Eventually, when we could run no longer, we crawled to a stop. I felt the need to keep running - as if someone was lurking over my shoulder constantly. We turned and got ready to fight Uxie again.

But strangely, no Uxie appeared.

"He's - he's not coming, is he?" Glacia finally ventured.

"We can't be sure of that," Koga said sharply. "He could try to take it in the night when we're asleep. We're going to have to keep guard so that we can protect ourselves."

There was no protest, even if none of us truly wanted to do it. The Time Gear - right now, it was more important than our beauty sleep.

Gel gasped and panted. "Where are we going to go?" He asked. "We have to protect this, right? But where are we going to hide it? Nothing can hide from Uxie."

An answer surfaced in my mind. "Remember the last thing Uxie said before he was taken over?"

"He said something about Giratina, I think." Glacia hesitantly said.

"The World Abyss - a giant hole in the ground," I said. "It'll lead us to Giratina - he's the one who's going to have to protect it."

"But where is it?" Glacia asked, closing her eyes to think. "I - he said something about going southwest, right?"

I, however, remembered perfectly. "Southwest, along the coast and before the forest," I said with absolute certainty.

Koga looked at me with curiosity. "How are you so sure?"

Uxie's eyes flashed in my memories.

"When I held eye contact with Uxie," I explained. "I started seeing things, and one of those things was the World Abyss. I think it was the last bit of him left in that thing, too."

There was a large silence.

"We're going to the World Abyss," Glacia agreed, before looking at me. "You saw where it was, right? Then you can take us there so that we can meet Giratina."

I nodded.

She looked to her side - to the southwest. "Then, let's go. We don't have a moment to waste."

* * *

(Merla)

Tom and I sat at a small watering hole. It had been a day or so since we had battled the Frillish and Tom had discovered his shadow powers. After that, we walked along the river for quite some time. Tom had been strangely quiet as he was listening to Shade (that strange being inside his head).

Shade was an unknown. I had no idea who he was, what he wanted, or where he came from. All he _said_ was that he wanted Tom to gain strength, for some reason.

When I prodded Tom for information, though, he remained silent.

It took a few more hours of walking before we saw the first inklings of civilization - a small outpost on top of a small watchtower. Without much debate, we climbed it to see if there were any Pokemon there that could guide us.

We found nothing - the watchtower and outpost were empty and abandoned. There were some dried berries that we took - we did need food, if at an incredibly limited amount, and it looked like nobody would be coming here for a while.

What was much more valuable, on the other hand, was the leather map in one of the drawers I dug up. It had directions to the nearby settlements - Vismiana City, Siemna Town, Wahed Town, and Rosalia Village.

The map also allowed me to place exactly where we were - namely, a long, _long_ way away from Jeden City.

Wahed Town is where Rax and I grew up. It took a few weeks to a month for me to travel from there to Jeden when I first wanted to become a Venturer.

I didn't tell Tom this, though. This was something only Glacia and I knew, and given my history there, I didn't want to return anytime soon.

Siemna Town was a town that I also knew fairly well. Both it and Wahed Town had libraries and were very well connected. Sometimes, I went to Siemna Town's library instead of Wahed Town's, just because it had a few books Wahed Town's didn't.

Siemna Town was nice, but I didn't want to visit it again any time soon. The inhabitants were nice, but they were also gossipy. We would stick out like a sore thumb - I know I did when I first went there. Knowledge of our presence would spread like wildfire, and our relative anonymity would burn up in a puff of smoke.

Knowing that, I decided that both towns were out for now.

That left Vismiana City and Rosalia Village; one was much more familiar with than the other.

Vismiana City was where I would have become a Venturer, had I not been Inverted. Captain Shino, an Accelgor, was rather welcoming and forthcoming of Bug-types, and I would have probably tried to get in.

Rax had tried to get in too, but rumors and such floated around about our family. He was the first Bug-type Captain Shino rejected in a long time. He was crying and bawling about it for the longest time, before abandoning the house for some other Base - that turned out to be Jeden - in the end.

Either way, I had gone to Vismiana on a visit once. It only took about ten minutes before a mob had formed with energy blasts at hand. I don't exactly remember how, but I was able to escape with my limbs intact.

I don't have very fond memories of that place - and it would be stupid to be there if we were found out.

All that I would accept, then, is Rosalia Village, which I never bothered going to, since it was much more isolated than the other settlements.

I told Tom where we going and he didn't have any protest. Thankfully, he didn't ask any questions, which I appreciated.

Using the map for directions, we took the path to Rosalia Village, which winded and waxed its way through the hillsides. Eventually, we came to the valley that Rosalia Village resided in.

Rosalia Village was a small and quaint village. The inhabitants were rather cheerful - even if they didn't know who we were or even _what_ we were, they still treated us with kindness and respect.

Sitting at the watering hole, we planned our next move - namely, what we were going to do.

Of course, there was only one path I was _truly_ going to accept.

"We have to find Lady Glacia," I stated without any hesitation or waiting.

Tom nodded. "I know - I don't like her in Night's hands as much as you do," Tom admitted. "But can we stage _another_ assault on the prison?"

I couldn't answer that. After all, we barely escaped with our lives last time - and that was when we had everyone else helping us, too.

Having to face Night and all of her forces again without help - that was suicide.

I slammed the ground with one of my thick legs. "Then what do we do?!" I challenged, feeling my blood boiling. "We can't go rescue Glacia - not without help at the very least!"

I awaited Tom's response, but none came. I turned to look at Tom, who was glassy-eyed. I internally groaned - he was talking with 'Shade' again.

Eventually, Tom returned to focus.

"So, what was that about?" I asked.

Tom locked eyes with me. "Shade gave me some suggestions. One, we could," he gulped, "raise an _army_."

I raised an eyebrow. "How would we go about doing that?"

Tom flung his arms up in consternation. "I don't know - I'm just as lost as you are." He calmed down slightly. "The other was to go to the Ghost World - Giratina has some connections, according to Shade."

I snorted. "How can going to the Ghost World help us find Glacia?" I asked. "It's not like she has anything to do with it."

Tom shrugged. "They're just suggestions. Do you have any better ideas?"

"Any idea would be better than those ideas, Tom," I told him blithely. "If we tried to raise an army to invade Night's prison, all we would do is alert Night of our position. Going to the Ghost World is even more of an idiotic idea - what would we be accomplishing by going there?!"

Tom was silent.

"How would we even get there in the first place?" I asked, irritated by Tom's idea. "Does Shade have any idea how to get there?"

Tom's eyes were downcast. "No." he quietly admitted. "Shade doesn't know how to get there from Naixe - he isn't very familiar with it."

"Then where do we go _next_?!" I demanded. "We need to go _somewhere_ \- sticking around isn't going to help us!"

Tom was silent and downcast. Even with my fervor, I felt myself calming down.

Finally, Tom spoke haltingly. "I'm sorry, Merla."

"What?"

"I keep forgetting how much you care for her - you don't want her to be alone and without you." Tom's voice held a ring of truth. "And if no one is telling you how to get to Glacia, you lash out."

I bit my tongue.

Tom's eyes looked a little tired as well. "Do _you_ have any ideas on how we can get to Glacia, Merla?"

I wanted to get angry with him, to be furious at his response, but when I looked at Tom, all I could see was someone tired and wanting to have inner peace.

And I had to admit the truth.

"No, Tom." The words danced an acid path through my tongue. "I don't know how we can get to Glacia."

There was nothing but a crushing silence to the response.

Then we heard a shriek. It pricked my ears painfully and, for some reason, caused me to nearly throw up.

Tom instantly reacted, jumping out of his misery and running through Rosalia Village's main street. After a brief moment of hesitation, I followed.

Halfway through running across the streets, though, we were interrupted by a Cacnea who grabbed on to us.

"Hold on!" The Cacnea struggled, pinning us to the ground. "Don't go! It's a trick!"

I stopped struggling, though Tom kept on pushing. That allowed Cacnea to focus all of his energy on pinning Tom to the ground.

Tom fixed the Cacnea with an impatient glare. "Someone needs our help! Why are you stopping us?!"

"Because that's not a normal Pokémon - that's an Inverted one!"

The Cacnea seemed to think that was enough of a reason for them and let Tom go for that reason. So when we continued running after that, the Cacnea looked incredibly perplexed.

"Didn't you hear me?" The Cacnea shouted after us. "They're Inverted - they'll kill you!"

We ignored the Cacnea, eventually arriving where the screams were originating from. Then we arrived at a chilling scene.

A large mob had formed, attacking an Inverted Pokémon with all their might. There were many Pokémon stomping and slashing, and the shrieks kept on going on and on and _on_. I was half convinced the Inverted Pokemon was dead and they were simply mimicking the shrieks.

Tom looked at me with complete focus. "We have to do something." There was no question, nothing of the sort - it was an order.

"But how?" But Tom ignored me and jumped into the fray. He melted into the shadow of an Amoonguss, who was among those that were attacking. He then jumped back out, before morphing into a shadowy Amoonguss clone.

He then sprayed a shadowy powder all over the crowd. Many of the attackers fell victim to the powder, except for a few Grass-types, including the Amoonguss.

"Hey, what are you doing?!" Tom didn't answer them, turning back into his Marshadow form instead.

I then saw my chance. I took a deep breath, as deep as my lungs could go, then breathed a draconic breath over all of the Grass-types in the mob.

They scattered immediately - the move wasn't super effective, but _no one_ wants to be hit by that move - it's painful no matter what.

Of course, they would try to regroup within a few seconds - they weren't complete cowards. But that gave us enough time to swoop in and grab the unconscious Inverted Pokemon, before high-tailing it out of there.

We didn't stick around for too long - Rosalia Village wasn't too big, so rumors and gossip traveled fast. By the end of the hour, they would be pariahs _again_.

(You get used to it after a while)

It took a while for us to run fast enough away from the villagers where we couldn't hear them anymore. It took even longer before we were too out of breath to continue.

I collapsed. "Tom, we are _idiots_!" I gestured to the Inverted Pokemon, who sat there. "Who knows who we just saved - what if they were an awful person?! We just got rid of the goodwill of everyone in Rosalia Town, and for what?!"

"For their life," Tom steadfastly answered. "Even if they are the most awful Pokémon in the world, I'm not going to let them be killed - not like that."

I sighed, before turning to look at the Inverted Pokemon. It was an Inverted Vulpix - the Ice-type form of Vulpix, the kind that lived in the mountains alone.

Strangely enough, this particular Vulpix had a small flower perched in the fluffy black fur on top of their head. I seldom saw an Inverted Pokemon wear _jewelry_.

Knowing what I know about Vulpix, they would have a burning breath, one that would melt most ice. I also know that they would have an awful personality - they weren't the most honest of Pokémon, that's for sure.

"I say we just leave them here," I told Tom. "They're safe now, so once they get back up, they can do whatever they want. It'll have nothing to do with us."

Tom bit his lips before his eyes went glassy again. I groaned - Shade, _again_.

I nudged the Inverted Vulpix away again, who groaned as they woke from conscious.

"Tom, we're leaving, _now_!" I told him. I couldn't feel the Miasma around the Inverted Pokemon, which made me incredibly nervous for some reason.

"Merla, I can't feel the Miasma around them," Tom slowly said. "I-I'm not sure that-"

"We should be leaving, Tom! The sooner, the better." I started moving away before the Vulpix's dark red eyes snapped open.

Both of us froze in place as the Vulpix pinned us in place with her gaze. Slowly, yet immeasurably fast, she got up on her feet.

Then she bowed her head.

"Thank you." the Vulpix demurred. "I'm grateful for your assistance." The Vulpix then began checking herself for wounds.

She was strange, in some way I couldn't identify. Ever since Glacia had destroyed the Miasma inside of me, I could sense the Miasma inside other Pokémon. More than the evil aura, it was a sort of sixth sense one got from constant exposure to it - you could _feel_ its awful presence, just as much as the negativity it exuded.

But I felt nothing from the Vulpix - absolutely, completely, nothing. No aura, no Miasma - nothing.

Scratch that, there was _something_ in her. _I_ was the one who didn't have anything since Glacia destroyed the Miasma inside me.

But this Vulpix, she had something _else_ inside her. Something _like_ the Miasma, but so incredibly, incredibly different.

It wasn't bad, either. It felt familiar in some way, but not _really_ \- like what I imagine a mother's warm hug would be like, even though I've never had that.

Arceus, this is confusing.

Tom, meanwhile, just stood there like I did and looked curiously upon the Vulpix.

As the Vulpix finished her grooming, I decided to break the ice. "So," I started, "Who _are_ you?"

The Vulpix narrowed her eyes at me, remaining silent.

"What she means is," Tom continued in my place. "Why were they attacking you - what did you do to them?"

"I didn't _do_ anything," she tersely explained. "They just don't like me because I'm Inverted. I haven't done anything wrong to anyone."

You could cut the tension in the air with a particularly sharp claw. "Oh, I," Tom coughed. "I see."

I sighed. This was getting us nowhere. "Okay, how about this. What's your name?"

Strangely, the Vulpix had a look of confusion on her face. "My," she stammered. "My name?"

"Yes, your name, get on with it!" I was feeling rather irritated with her.

She gulped. "How about - how about you go first?"

What?

Tom sighed. "Alright, sure." He pointed to himself. "My name is Tom - just Tom." He looked at me significantly.

I rolled my eyes. "Fine," I groaned. "My name is Merla."

The Vulpix remained quiet. I sighed.

"This is the part where you tell us your name, like the way we told you ours."

The Vulpix's eyes darted around as I said this, looking for a way to escape. I was even more confused than I was before, because _seriously_? What Pokémon, Inverted or not, was afraid of giving out their _name_?

Finally, she peeped out a small name.

"Lotus."

Tom smiled. "See, Lotus? Was that so hard?"

Lotus, though, remained quiet, and was - was she _blushing_?

"No," she admitted, looking at him.

I decided to get back on track. "Lotus, why did they attack you?"

Her gaze turned remarkably more frosty as it landed on me. "If you're wondering, I didn't _want_ them to attack me. I was just," her gaze shifted. "Just asking around."

"Just asking around," I repeated, unconvinced.

"Just asking around." She affirmed.

The silence permeated the atmosphere again as a coarse wind blew through us.

"What," I started, feeling strangely out of my depth. "What could you have asked that made them want to _kill_ you?"

She turned her head to look at Tom again, relaxing as she did so. "Well," She coughed. "I asked if they saw any strangers skulking around recently." She then had a startled look on her face. "Have you?!"

Tom scratched the back of his head. "No one in particular." he admitted. "We've been, er," Tom fumbled around, looking for a good excuse.

"We've been lost," I said in his place. "We woke up in the middle of nowhere, with nothing at our side. We were going to rest in Rosalia Town for a while, but," I sighed. "Well, we heard your shrieks, and Tom just _HAD_ to save you."

I turned an irate look onto Tom, who looked rather sheepish. Lotus, though, flushed even harder, not able to keep eye contact with him.

"And now," I continued. "We're probably banned from Rosalia Town for life."

"Sorry," Lotus muttered. "I didn't mean to-"

Tom interrupted her, a look of anger on his face. "You didn't mean to what?" His harsher tone took Lotus for a surprise, and she looked trapped.

"I," She tripped over her words. "I didn't mean to cause you so much trouble."

"Trouble?" Tom demanded. "What trouble do _we_ have, compared to being beaten to within an inch of your _life_?" Tom looked at me in askance. "Merla, what are you on about? She would have _died_ if we didn't stop them!"

I shifted my eyes away. "But… but… " The words failed me, however - knowing that Lotus was relatively normal (as normal as an Inverted Pokemon can be), there wasn't an excuse for what I said.

I flushed. "Er," I started. "Sorry, Lotus." I offered a weak apology. Lotus, though, stared at me in shock.

"Are you _apologizing_?" She asked, bewildered.

"Yes?" I returned, confused. "I said something awful, so I'm apologizing. What's so weird about that?" It felt odd, being on _this_ side of the conversation.

Lotus just looked at me in abject confusion, her mouth gaping.

Yeah, this conversation wasn't in my comfort zone.

I turned to Tom. "Anyway, Tom, we better get going - there's no point in sticking around here for much longer." There wasn't much point in going anywhere, either, since they didn't have anywhere to _go_ to, but I just wanted to get away from Lotus. Then the world would (hopefully) right itself.

Tom took one last look at Lotus. "Yeah," he finally said. "I guess you're right, Merla." He waved one last time at Lotus. "Hope your search goes well, and you find the strangers you were looking for."

With that, we started walking away, and I let out a small breath of relief. Finally, we could get this whole mess behind us.

"Wait!" Lotus called behind us, and Tom quickly turned around.

Of course, it couldn't be _easy_. It could _never_ be.

"What is it, Lotus?" Tom asked, concerned.

Lotus took a deep breath, before responding. "I," she started awkwardly. "I was hoping I could ask you for a favor. You," she tore her eye contact away. "You've been nice so far, so I was hoping you would listen."

Tom assuredly nodded. "We can spare a minute." He turned an angry eye onto me. " _Right_ , Merla?"

I inwardly groaned, but I nodded nonetheless. "Sure, why not?" I tonelessly told him.

Tom turned to Lotus expectantly. "Go ahead, Lotus."

Lotus nodded. "You see, I'm an Inverted Pokemon. I wasn't allowed to leave for the village before - since everyone would attack me. She told me stories about what happened to Inverted Pokemon that were in Rosalia Village - the villagers would attack them incredibly fast, so they could do no evil.

Lotus pointed to a small mountain range visible in the distance. It was within walking distance of the village. "Because of that, I never left the mountaintop, and Mom hid me whenever she brought visitors."

Lotus looked away. "One day, a few years ago when I was playing on the mountaintop, some Ice-type villagers found me. They escaped before Mom got to them - and they told their parents."

Tom looked concerned. "What happened?"

"Her home was attacked, Tom," I answered, fading memories entering my head. "Was," I gulped. "Was one of the attackers a Larvesta?"

Lotus nodded. "He tried to burn and destroy everything." She looked curious. "How did you-"

"I knew him." I answered. "I used to live around here - it was one of the biggest events. I remember it somewhat. I wasn't involved."

Rax was elated about the destruction - and the Vismiana City Base and Captain Shion were, likewise. I avoided his gleeful wrath for a time afterward in the library, so it stuck well in my mind.

"My mother and I were lucky enough to escape the destruction. We were," a few tears fell from her face. "We were only injured. Mom lost one of her legs, but we survived."

Tom had a wordless, horrified look on his face.

"We wandered around the mountaintops after that. Any home we made would be demolished by the villagers soon afterward. We didn't have much choice."

A small, but weak smile fell upon Lotus's face. "Nothing _really_ bad happened after that, though. We got used to being hungry and constantly moving, but nobody ever found out soon enough to grow a force to attack us."

"Then what happened?" Tom implored.

"Then, a couple of strangers came to town about a month ago. They were quiet, they asked around." Lotus answered. "They were the subject of a couple of rumors, too. Or at least, that's what Mom and I overheard from the Pokémon that tried looking for us."

I had a bad feeling in my stomach. "What did these strangers want?"

A dead, soulless look entered Lotus's eyes. "They were looking for Inverted Pokémon - Pokémon like me. They realized why various Pokémon were heading up the mountain and came for us themselves."

"And then?" Tom asked.

"They found us." Lotus answered. "Mom made me hide while they asked where I was. Mom," a tear fell from Lotus's eyes. "Mom refused to tell them where I was - then, when one of them read her mind, she told me to _run_."

The tears flowed. "I ran, and I ran, and I ran, _and I ran_!" Her eyes closed in shame. "Mom didn't come back afterward. They," a rage was building in her. "They _took_ her!"

She looked away. "I didn't get a good look at the two - Mom's hiding spot kept me from seeing them. From what I could hear, though, there was a guy and a girl. The girl was the one who read the mind, but I don't know anything about the guy."

She turned a shaky look on them. "I," she gulped. "I know this is sudden, and I know that you probably have more important things to do, but-"

"Enough, Lotus." Tom stopped her dead in her tracks, staring her in the eyes. "You don't need to say anything else."

"W-what?" She stammered. "What do you mean?"

I snorted. "Look, Lotus? You _can't_ tell Tom something like that and _not_ expect him to want to help. You just _can't_."

The fact was, we had no clue how we were going to get to Glacia - she was probably already under Night's control, or under the control of that possessor.

I hate to admit it, but without a way forward, it would be foolish to try to rescue her now. We needed allies and information if we want to stand a chance of rescuing her - Shade wasn't lying about that, as much as it pains me to say it.

And while we can't make an army, we _can_ make at least one ally.

"We're going to help you find your mother, Lotus." Tom's resolve filled the air. "Count on it."

Lotus was left speechless, tear tracks glistening on her cheeks.

I sighed. No time for that. "Lotus, if we're going to help you, can you help us too, at the very least?"

It was an offhand comment, but it snapped Lotus out of her daze. "O-of course!" She nodded. "What do want me to do?"

"Tell us anything and _everything_ you know about the kidnappers," I instructed her, as Tom nodded. "We need to know where we have to start looking."

Lotus, though, looked recalcitrant. "I-I'm sorry, but I don't remember much about them," she answered.

She closed her eyes to think. "Mom and I, we were walking along the path. Then she hid me as they approached. She was about to hide, but- but they found her. They then started talking, before Mom told me to run away. I don't know anything other than that. I wasn't able to find anything out from the villagers."

Tom screwed up his face in concentration. "What did they say to your Mom?"

"They asked her if she knew any Inverted Pokémon. When Mom told her she didn't, they brought someone from the village who recognized us. She tried to fight, but they stopped her pretty quickly."

Lotus continued. "Then they started asking her where I was - though, Mom didn't answer them. Eventually, though, they took her away."

That gave us nothing. "Did they use any names? Any at _all_?"

Lotus thought harder. "They mentioned something about darkness, a fog, or a mist or something. Miasma, I think."

"Anything else?"

"N-no," she apologized. Then her eyes snapped open as a realization dawned over her. "Wait - I think I remember one of their names!"

"What is it?!" Tom quickly implored.

"It was," Lotus muttered. "It was, " Then Lotus opened her eyes.

"It was Nyx."

* * *

Rax inspected the office that was now _his_.

He grinned at the thought of it. Oh, he didn't particularly like the room - the gifts, the splendor, none of that particularly mattered to him. Respect was shown, not said.

And by the way, they were _acting_ , he had a lot of it.

He deserved it, too. After all, _he_ was the one the cleared the Dungeon, before Perni or Dram, or any of their idiotic teams. _He_ was the one that was willing to take care of the tyrannical Falcon.

And right now, _he_ was the leader of the Jeden City Base.

"Captain Rax?"

Oh, _there_ it was.

He turned to see Perni standing there, looking rather flustered.

"Night would like to visit you - she says she's on diplomatic business."

Rax waved at her. "Let her in, I don't particularly care."

Then, out of nowhere, she teleported into his office.

"Hello, Rax," she curtsied. "How very nice to meet you."

"Oh, cut it," Rax ignored the pleasantries. "Tell me, where is Captain Falcon?"

Rax could see Night grit her teeth - from what Perni and Dram said, she was a person very particular about manners and kindness. Rax would make sure to boil her blood.

"He is in an undisclosed location," Night said, eyes flashing. "He is no longer of any concern to you."

"No concern to me?" Rax laughed. "You're kidding, right? I bet that son of a crow wants my head on a platter and his old job back." Rax's smile turned fiendish. "Give him to me or I will raise hell."

Night's lip curled. "You might find yourself lacking allies, then. I have more 'friends' than you will ever have in your life."

In response, Rax sent a Silver Wind in Night's general direction. She had only a second to dodge but managed to Teleport before it reached her.

Rax extended his senses and found Night at the edge of his perception. He started Dancing, strengthening all of his battling skills. He managed to make it subtle enough that it was near imperceptible - one could mistake it for random motions of the body.

Night soundlessly teleported above him, a large Shadow Ball in one hand and a Focus Blast in another.

Rax dodged with grace, before slamming Night into the wall with another Silver Wind. He kept up the pressure, until Night collapsed onto the ground, heavily injured and body bleeding.

Rax narrowed his eyes. She was powerful - oh, nothing compared to Falcon, but certainly enough to give him some good exercise.

"Neitra!"

His old Beheeyem friend came to his aid from where he was hiding in the statues. "You messed up now, haven't you?" He motioned to Night's unconscious body.

"Oh, shut it," Rax motioned to Night's prone body. "Modify her memories - make her think that she succeeded in whatever she came here to do and that there was no battle. Take her to the infirmary afterward, so that she wakes up without a scratch."

"Sure thing, boss," Neitra floated over to Night and probed her with his colored lights. His eyes glowed, reading her thoughts and memories.

"Boss?" Neitra turned back to him. "You're not going to like what she planned on doing with you."

Rax narrowed his eyes. "What did she want to do?"

"Hypnotize you, then turn you into her willing slave," Neitra explained, grimacing. "She's done the same thing to a third of our members, as well as old Falcon."

Hypnotize him? Slave?

Then the pieces started coming together.

Perni and Dram's insistence on meeting with Night, Falcon's hate of Ghost-types, and everything else started fitting together.

Rax's eyes flashed with rage.

"What are you going to do, boss?"

"What I _want_ to do is kill her right here," Rax angrily confessed. Unfortunately, his position didn't come with the ability to murder high-ranking officials.

But he could do the next best thing.

After all, now he had _power_. Oh, there would be repercussions - but this would easily be the best way to get back at Captain Falcon

He smiled thinly.

"First things first, Neitra. Drag every morsel of relevant information out of her brain, and store it," he commanded. "We're going to need it for later use."

Neitra's eyes widened. "How much?"

"Anything conspiratorial or dangerous - I need to know everything she does that I'll care about," Rax commanded. "How long will it take?"

Neitra was silent. "About thirty minutes or so."

"That's fine, we have time to spare," Rax nodded. "Before you do, plug all of the information about the traitors in the Base into my head."

Neitra nodded, before flashing his lights in Rax's direction. Knowledge of around thirty traitors or so plugged itself into Rax's brain, and he grimaced. Perni, Dram, and a couple of others (like Myga and Kol, members of _those_ teams) - all traitors.

Rax grimaced, thinking about Perni and Dram, his old teammates. "A shame. I found myself liking them."

Neitra nodded. "What will you do?"

Rax floated from his spot and started Dancing. "I'm going to do a little _cleaning_ , if you catch my drift." I looked at Neitra. "They're still useful - I'll need you to reprogram them. They might retaliate, though. I'll fix that for you."

"And as for Night?"

"Once you're done taking everything from her, wipe her mind dry and deep."

"How deep?" Neitra asked emotionlessly

Rax laughed hollowly. "She won't even know how to use the bathroom - that deep."

Neitra looked pained. "That'll take a day or so."

Rax nodded. "Are you up to the task?"

"I never said that - but this will be my biggest project yet." Neitra turned back to the unconscious Night. "I'll make sure she stays asleep, too." Hypnotic waves flew from his lights, knocking Night into a deeper unconscious.

As Neitra worked on her memories, Rax took a good look at the skyline the setting sun made. It was beautiful, in a melancholy sort of way.

He then walked out of his office to purge his Base of insubordination.

Rax grinned.

After all - this was _his_ Base - his alone.


	21. 21 - An Enemy's Betrayal

(Alice)

You wouldn't _believe_ how long the journey took.

I mean, it was a week or two, but it _felt_ like a long time.

* * *

Vinia, once we were in danger from Rax's Silver Wind, teleported us away from the Breaking site. It only took us a few seconds for us to arrive back in Jeden - right next to a panicking Milla.

One quick knockout later, and we teleported to Floral Fields. We all let go of Vinia, who was looking rather winded from all of the Teleports.

At that point, we took some time to consider our options.

I had started pacing furiously on the ground, trying to think of where we were going to go next. Next to me, Peng was also thinking hard, and she had put her flippers to her temple.

Ken looked shell-shocked. He had seen his father, what had seemed like an unstoppable juggernaut, defeated right in front of him. Falcon had personally delivered Ken his butt on a silver platter. Ken was probably reevaluating his perspective on life right now.

Then he fell unconscious for some reason. We shook him up and gave him some medicine Vinia pilfered from the stores, but he wouldn't get up. Vinia assured us he would wake up in time

Vinia was just lying down right now, resting her energy. I wonder what Teleporting that often would do to a Pokémon. If it wasn't necessary to move so fast among previous locations, I would have told her to stop using it so often.

Then again, with where we are now, we may not need it.

I sighed. "So, we have no leads, then?" I tried to start a conversation.

Peng glumly nodded. "Falcon was our only link to Night," she answered. "We have no way to figure out how to get to her other than him. We don't know where she's living now that the prison is destroyed, or where she'll be keeping him hidden."

Vinia sat up. "Then what we need is information," she summarized. "We need to look for where Night could be hiding."

"But how?" I couldn't help but ask. "Where do we even _start_ now?"

"Let's work backward," Peng suggested, turning to the Vinia. "What do you know about your mother, Vinia?"

Vinia raised one of her eyebrows. "What do you mean?"

"We know that she's a megalomaniac, that she hypnotizes Pokemon into worshipping her, that she experiments with Inverted Pokemon, and that she's a criminal," Peng waved her flipper. "You get the idea. No, what are some more personal things about her?"

Vinia sighed. "Not that much. She didn't tell me much about herself - if she ever talked to me, it was more to prepare me to take her place as a manipulator than anything else."

Vinia's eyes widened. "She - she did mention family, though, once or twice," she revealed. "I don't know why, but she would sometimes send me away in the middle of her lessons. She would say that she had to deal with her sister or something like that - once it was her dad."

"Sister?!" That was news to me. "She has a sister?"

Vinia slowly nodded. "I think so."

"Then that's what we have to do next," Peng said. "We find Night's family, and they'll tell us where we can find Night."

That was still a gamble to me - after all, we were assuming Night's family would be able to tell us where Night is now, when Vinia, a known connection, doesn't.

It wasn't like we had a better idea, though.

Vinia sighed. "I don't know where she lived before the prison, though. She was already living there when I was born."

And there it was - the caveat. I growled under my breath with frustration.

Peng, though, looked curious. "Why don't we look at Jeden City's records?" She asked.

"What do you mean?" I asked, a little confused. "What records?"

"The records - the list of Pokémon currently residing within the city." Peng raised her eyebrow. "The Base keeps a record of all the Pokemon going in and out of a city - it helps them double-check for missing Pokémon."

"I've never heard of it," I said. It did make sense, in a way. "I just came here and asked to be a Venturer, and they allowed me to."

Peng looked at me skeptically. "When _I_ moved here to become a Venturer, I had to check in to make sure that they knew I was a resident of the city. I didn't have any options - I needed to do it, period."

I scratched my head. "I don't know anything about that, but I'll take your word for it." I turned to Vinia. "These records - they're in the Base, right?"

Vinia slowly nodded. "Yeah?"

"Then take someone to go get them - we don't have much time before the Venturers return from the Breaking. After all, they have teleporters with them as well."

Vinia nodded, before turning to Peng. "Do you know where they're being kept?"

"I saw the room once before." she reaffirmed.

Vinia walked up to her. "Then let's go." With a flash of light, the two of them were off.

I sat down next to the near-catatonic Ken, giving him an idle poke.

"Ken?" I poked him again. "Get up, Ken."

Ken sat up, rubbing his head. "My - my head hurts," he complained.

I rolled my eyes. "Tell me about it." I gave Ken some water. "We don't have compatible types with Psychic energy. It gives a wicked headache to my head as well."

Ken nursed his water. "I - I heard what you guys were saying. There's a way you wouldn't have to come to sign in yourself."

I raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"The Captain - Dad - could alter the records at will. It's one of the perks of being the person that signs off on missions and stuff," Ken explained. "Catal told me about it once - Captain Falcon signed off on his records himself, so he didn't have to do it."

"And you're saying he did the same thing for me as well?"

Ken shrugged. "He let you in to be a Venturer. For some reason, he decided to give you special treatment."

"I - I see."

Again, I was considered a unique case to Captain Falcon, for _some_ reason. What _was_ that reason, though?

And did it have anything to do with Night?

Then Vinia and Peng reappeared, cutting me off from my musings. Peng held up a stack of papers in her fin and laid them out on the ground in front of us.

"The records," Peng grandly announced. "For all Psychic-types that immigrated into Jeden City in the last thirty years."

I raised my eyebrow as we leafed through them. "Small question - what if she was born in Jeden?"

Vinia shook her head. "No way. We of the Ralts line tend to be sociable, and we have a lot of neighbors. We know our way around as well. But when we were looking for Sky, I had to introduce myself to pretty much everyone."

"Not to mention Night is only known for being the warden," Peng mentioned. "She doesn't have a presence in the city. A family would make bigger waves."

I accepted the logic.

It took us some time to shuffle through the papers in the middle of the open prairie. A feral Pikipek came to check us out, and we had to shoo it away.

Eventually, after a few minutes, we found one roughly twenty-one years back, signaling that a Gardevoir had moved into Jeden and purchased a plot of land near it - a plot, mind you, that eventually became the prison.

It _also_ gave us where she had moved from - the small and mountainous Warpe Town.

"So," Vinia took a look at the tiny scrawled word. "This is where my mother came from, then."

I stood up and looked at everyone. "I've been to it before."

"Really?" Peng asked. "You've been there before?"

I nodded. "Warpe Town isn't too far away from Fertis Village - only a day or two away. Sometimes, I needed supplies when I was growing Berries and other crops on our farm. I had to go to Warpe Town to get them."

I closed my eyes. "It'll take us two weeks or so to get there," I estimated.

Vinia hauled up her bag. "I think we have enough provisions for that." She got up, before looking at me squarely in the eye. "Lead us to Warpe Town, Alice."

* * *

I stepped up to the gates of the town. "Here we are, guys! Warpe Town!"

Ken groaned. "Did we _really_ have to cross the swamp, Alice? After all, you should have hated it as much as I did."

"It builds character, Ken." I placated. "You either tough it or you find a smart way across."

"Going around _is_ the smart way!"

"Not if you can levitate," I reminded him.

"You're the only one who can levitate!"

Vinia rolled her eyes at the argument as Peng groaned. "Look, it's _over._ We're at Warpe Town now - let's start looking for clues."

Vinia nodded. "Let's fan out," she ordered. "There should be at least one Pokémon who knows my mother."

I nodded. "Oh, and make sure to ask the older crowd. No one under the age of twenty-five will remember her since she moved into Jeden twenty years ago."

With that, we split into two groups. Ken and Vinia went and searched the west side of Warpe Town, while Peng and I looked through the east side.

"How long do you think this will take?" Peng asked me as we walked through the streets, looking for someone sufficiently evolved enough for us to interrogate.

I shrugged. "There are a few thousand Pokemon in Warpe Town. If, say, half of them are old enough to remember Night, that would help us."

I sighed. "Still, the search will take some time. Luckily, the Ralts line is rare enough and (usually) kind enough for people to make friends with. If we ask enough people each day, the four of us can probably find someone who knows more about Night."

"Let's just hope we're lucky," Peng summarized.

We then spent the next several hours searching for any trace of Night. Unfortunately, no one we talked to knew about Night, other than the fact that she was the warden of a prison somewhere across Naixe - and that was for the law personnel.

Luckily, our bounties hadn't arrived, which was great for us, as we didn't have to hide.

Our groups eventually reconvened outside Warpe Town and discussed our findings - or rather, the lack of findings.

"How can no one know who Night is?" Ken asked, frustrated, kicking at the ground half-heartedly. "She lived here before - how can _no one_ know about her?"

Vinia shook her head. "Not to mention that there's no record of a member of the Gardevoir line ever living here in Warpe Town," she mentioned. "Is it possible that Night lied on the records?"

Peng shrugged. "I have no idea - it's an honor-based system. You sign out in one town and sign in with another." She sighed. "Pokémon have gone missing because of it, too - on the trip between towns, when they're in the middle of a move or something, outlaws attack them."

"So," I concluded. "We might be on a wild Ducklett chase, then."

"We should still look for a couple of days," Vinia declared. "There's still a chance that they missed Night and the rest of her family. I'm not willing to let this matter go just yet."

Peng sighed. "Fine, then. We'll continue searching tomorrow." She looked into the bag. "We'll need to restock, too. Alice, you might have to steal for us." That statement was stated rather morosely.

I just accepted it. Back in my wandering traveler days, I did that often enough that I had forgotten how to deal with actual money.

"I'll go tonight," I offered. "You guys rest here, and take a break." Peng and Ken nodded, before sitting down on the hill and closing their eyes, trying to take a nap.

Vinia, though, got back up. "I'll go with you - I want to go to Warpe Town's library and see what they have to offer." She stretched a little bit. "Do you want to go with me, Alice?"

I shrugged. "Sure - let's get the food first, though."

With that, we went back into Warpe Town and walked to the marketplace, where there were still food vendors and grocery stands.

"Oh, er, excuse me, Mr. Kecleon, sir!" Vinia started her role as a distractor. "Could you please tell me how old these apples are? My, er, grandmother is _very_ particular about the age of the apples she eats!"

The Kecleon that was managing the grocery stand nodded. "Of course dear, these apples are-"

Then I fired a small mind-altering Confuse Ray at him, while Vinia hurriedly packed apples and other fruits and Berries into the bag.

As the Kecleon blinked his eyes in confusion, I sank into a deep bow or curtsy or something like that.

"Thank you so much," I 'humbled' myself before him. "Our grandmother needed this so badly that you simply _had_ to give us a discount."

We then left with the fruit before the Kecleon could regather his wits about him.

Usually, I would steal things like this directly, without any need for mind tricks. Phasing had its perks, and while it was tiring, it had its uses.

But with Vinia, the wonderful assistant, all I had to do was alter the energy composition of Confuse Ray, to make the victim more suggestible instead of panicking and psychotic. In battle, enemies could usually shrug it off, but when put upon an unsuspecting Kecleon?

He had no chance.

To be fair, the hardest part was making sure that no one else saw - because if even one Pokémon saw the trick and told the Kecleon the truth, the supernatural ruse would immediately be shattered.

And Kecleon were _ruthless_ when it came to recovering stolen items.

When we were at least twenty meters or so away from him, we could finally breathe a sigh of relief. Vinia snuck me a high-five, which I gladly reciprocated.

"So, now we're going to the library?" She asked me, expectant. I nodded - I had no issue since we had gotten what we needed.

Soon enough, we entered the Warpe Town library, a small dilapidated old building. With a rusty creaking, we opened the front door and entered the place.

The library was mostly deserted, which wasn't surprising. Warpe Town was in the boonies, just like Fertis Town was. You didn't come here to get an education - you came here because you needed something from a craftsman or you wanted to trade goods.

So while there was a library, it looks like it wasn't taken care of for decades. There was a caretaker, of course - an old, dozing Decidueye. We slowly walked into the library, careful not to disturb them.

"So, what do you want to look for, Vinia?" I asked her. "You wanted to come here for a reason, right?"

"I wanted to see _The Tales of Eonia_ ," she said instead.

"Okay. Now, here's another question - why?"

Vinia sighed. "Look - a few weeks ago, right before everything went down the toilet, you, Glacia, Ken, Tom, and Naetle met Celebi, right?"

"Yeah," I nodded. "Do you want to look into the legend because of it?"

Vinia nodded. "Naetle was a part of the real events, and Dusknoir was as well. I just want to take a look at the book of legends again, just to see if I missed anything."

"Alright, sure. Let's find _The Tales of Eonia_."

It didn't take too long to find. There are records of the book being around for centuries - though, if what Glacia said is true about her having read the book as a kid, then it must be much, much older than that. It's, in all actuality, just older than a few millennia old at this point.

And just as we thought, there was a copy of the book in the dusty and musty old library. Vinia cracked it open, coughing at the dust that poured out of it. Large chunks of the book had been worn away by time, probably chewed on by feral Joltik or something like that.

She navigated to the legend we were looking for, before reading it to herself under her breath.

Then her eyes narrowed as she went backward, before flipping a page.

"I don't know why," she stated. "But this page is thicker than the others."

I looked at it for a second, before burning it with a small spurt of flame.

"What are you doing?!" Vinia grabbed some of the dust that was lying around from when she picked the book up and patted the fire down. The fire sizzled down.

She turned to me enraged. "Why on _Naixe_ would you do something so _crazy_ , Alice?!"

I, however, redirected her attention to the page I had burnt. "Look," I commanded.

Vinia, face sullen with rage, took a look and was taken aback.

Inside the page of the book lay another page, which I revealed by burning the original.

"Someone hid this secret page by putting it inside the normal one," I explained. "It's a diversionary tactic I've seen once before - hid a map to a place called the 'Western Cave' or something like that."

Vinia peeled the burned pages of the book apart to show the pristine secret page, which had a tiny, neat script written on it, one that I've seen before somewhere. She began reading it aloud:

 _To whom this may concern:_

 _According to my father, this legend is partially untrue. In his travels, he has come across a band of people known as the Temporalists. While they hold misconceptions about the nature of the legendary pantheon, they know the 'true' nature of this story and have therefore elected to share it with him._

 _I, personally, don't see why he is so sure that the myth in this book is incorrect, nor do I know why my normally astute sister is so readily believing him. Part of my being is simply waiting for them to realize how foolish they've been by trusting the Temporalists._

 _Another part of me, the academic, is wanting to put this to paper, if only because documentation is the way both truth and lies are passed down. I will recount it for the sake of those curious._

 _According to the Temporalists, some events in the book were true. The Grovyle coming back in time to find Dialga's domain, and using his Artifacts to restore his true power with the aid of the Celebi._

 _What isn't true, though, is the book's statement that they were nearly alone in this feat. They were aided by two fellows - a Turtwig who held the key to Dialga's domain, and a Piplup with the extraordinary ability of the Dimensional Scream, which can see into the past and future of an object._

 _I, personally, am fascinated with this aspect of the myth. A precognitive ability, many times more accurate than mine could ever be. It would change the nature of information and power as we know it if harnessed correctly._

 _But I digress. Those two were the true saviors - the Grovyle fell before he arrived in Dialga's domain._

 _What's more, there was an enemy of the heroes - an unnamed Ghost-type, who slew the Grovyle before he could arrive at Dialga's domain. He isn't mentioned at all within the story._

 _According to the Temporalists, the changes were made because the Piplup was, before a Pokémon, something called a 'human'. No one could accept a non-Pokémon being sentient and altruistic. He and his partner had to be removed from the story thusly, and for the story to make narrative sense, the Ghost-type to disappear as well._

 _I don't care for the Ghost-type - I despise them, with father being the only exception. Still, something like the human and the Dimensional Scream being hidden isn't tolerable. Perhaps that is why I'm writing this down._

 _As for now, I will wait for this whole matter to blow over, even if my father is promising to act on this information. How, exactly, I don't know, and I don't care to know._

 _So, to whom it may concern:_

 _From my precognitive powers, I have an instinct telling me that someone I know will come to read this in the coming future. If so, good luck with your adventures._

 _Sincerely,_

 _N._

There, the note ended.

Vinia's eyes shot wide open, my eyes widening alongside hers.

"This- this-" she stuttered. "Who- who wrote this? Who are the Temporalists? What on-"

"Hello," a wizened old voice croaked behind us, and we turned around to see the old Decidueye, who was wearily flapping to where we were sitting.

Vinia tried to surreptitiously hide the ashes I had created. "Hello, er-"

"Call me Juniper," she said with a beaky smile. "I don't care much for titles."

"Hello, Ms. Juniper," Vinia greeted. "What brings you to our table?"

"Oh, not much. You _did_ just burn one of my books, you know." Vinia and I grimaced. "Don't think you are that your hiding the ashes was a competent ruse. I can still smell the smoke in the air."

Then she chuckled, which turned into a cough. "I've been waiting for someone to open that page up for a good twenty-five years, now. It took someone long enough."

"Twenty-five years?" I raised my eyebrow. "Why didn't you open it yourself?"

"And purposefully desecrate the library?!" She squawked shrilly. "Never in a million years!"

"Okay, then - why don't you mind _us_ doing it?"

"Oh, I do mind. I'm simply too tired to get mad," she yawned. "That, and I was curious as to what was on the page she had written."

"She?" Vinia asked. "Do you know who wrote this?"

Juniper nodded. "Night was a strange girl - and the fact that she left for Jeden not too long afterward even stranger." She shrugged. "But who am I to say what is strange, and what isn't."

There was a hollow ringing in my head, and I could only hear Vinia's soft gasp.

"Did you say," Vinia gulped. "Did you say Night?"

Juniper nodded. "She was a small Ralts girl that would always spend her days in the library with me, though after she evolved, she left the town. She erased herself from the records as well, so it took me a while to learn where she had gone."

"Jeden City," I completed for her.

"Yes," she said simply, before tilting her head. "Judging from what was on the letter, as well as your reaction to the name, Night means something to you, doesn't she?"

Vinia coughed. "She's my, er," she coughed. "Mother."

Juniper looked at Vinia cleanly. "Yes, I can see the resemblance," she stated. "Why have you come, then?"

I realized that we had an informant - we shouldn't waste the time we have. "We've come to search for information regarding her - things like who Vinia's extended family is, and other things of that nature."

Juniper sighed. "I see. Did your mother ever tell you about her family, by any chance?"

"Er, no, ma'am." Vinia honestly answered. "She didn't seem to want to acknowledge their existence."

"Strange - she was always rather attached to them, no matter how much she lambasted them in private. Then again, Pokémon change. I suppose you've come now because of your mother's," she coughed. "Accident, haven't you."

"Accident?!" Vinia's eyes widened. "What accident?"

Juniper ruffled her feathers. "Then why did you come - why didn't you ask your mother these questions directly?"

I cursed. "As Vinia said, Night wasn't too close to her family, so she couldn't ask her herself. She came here looking for answers." I fixed my gaze on Juniper. "What do you mean, 'accident'?"

"Have you seen the newspapers for the past week?" Juniper said in response.

Vinia raised her eyebrows. "No, we've been on the road until today. Why?"

Instead of answering, Juniper flapped over to where she had been napping earlier, before pulling what looked like a rag out. She flapped back to where we were sitting and smoothed it out for us.

What I saw nearly made my jaw drop:

 _ **UNKNOWN AMNESIA STRIKES: JEDEN PRISON WARDEN FORGETS ALL**_

The article continued to detail several events that occurred a few days ago - Night had been found stumbling the streets of Jeden. She had no memories - nothing of her name, who she was, the time, where she was - almost everything had been removed.

According to eyewitnesses, even her grammar was atrocious - she spoke in one-word sentences to communicate basic urges, like the need to eat and go to the bathroom, which she needed assistance for.

Looking at the pictures snapped, I felt an odd sense of catharsis. Looking at the face which taunted me a few weeks ago now dumbstruck and idiotic, their credibility reduced to ashes - it felt wonderful.

I couldn't help but think of how Myga would react to something like this.

Vinia, for her part, couldn't stop staring at the picture of her dumbfounded mother.

"This - who did this to her?" she whispered, clutching at the newspaper. "H-How?"

Juniper gently took the newspaper back from her. "No one knows. One day, the faithful warden of Jeden, the next, a mockery of a mockery, a cripple." She sighed. "She might make a recovery, _eventually_. Her sister has come to take care of her for the time being, meanwhile."

Vinia was still staring at the picture in a near trance. If it wasn't for the small shudders I was seeing, I'd have thought she'd fallen asleep where she was standing.

To hear that someone you've feared for your entire life was now a mental cripple, who's life was putty in her caretaker's hands - there's no way it _wouldn't_ be jarring, at the very least.

Just wait until the _others_ find out about this.

Then I shook my head. Time to get back on track.

"Juniper, who _is_ her sister?" I asked. "We've been chomping at the bit to know who she is - can you tell us?"

"Ah, so you wish to know about Nyx, then?"

That managed to pull Vinia out of her semi-trance. "Nyx?"

"Your aunt, dear," Juniper explained. "While she didn't come here nearly as often as your mother did, because of her desire to be near your grandfather, she did visit every so often. She would regularly study various subjects with your mother, particularly psychology and history."

"What was - what was Nyx like?" Vinia's voice was begging, as she looked deep into Juniper's old eyes.

"Nyx?" Juniper's eyes turned distant as if she was reminiscing. "She wasn't a very pleasant Pokémon to be around. Oh, she was kind and polite and such, but it _never_ felt as it should."

"What do you mean?" Vinia pressed.

"Every kindness I've seen from her felt like an act, like it was only a thin facade." Juniper shook herself. "Forgive me, I shouldn't speak ill of your relatives, especially when they've done nothing wrong."

She sighed. "But, if you are willing, there is one more thing I am willing to tell you about your aunt."

"Yes?" Vinia eagerly nodded.

"One time, on a particularly miserable day, she and your mother were arguing off in their little corner of the library, about your mother's attitude, about your grandfather's dreams, or some tripe like that. No one else was in the library, so I had nothing else to do."

Juniper gulped. "The air around them turned feverish. I swear, I saw the edges of the papers curl and rot as they slung harsh words at each other. And," she suddenly sounded nervous. "It may have been an illusion one of them created out of anger, but there was a strange black fog hanging around the two of them."

Vinia and I were silent. At this point, there's no need to explain what that fog was.

"What's more, I saw your aunt _flickering_. As if something barely contained was raging to fall out of her." Juniper sighed. "I - I apologize, I've gone too far, I-"

"No." Vinia stopped her. I saw cogs and gears whirring around in her mind, and knew she was coming to several deductions she would tell us later. "We, we need to go. Just, can we ask one last thing?"

"Of course, dear," Juniper answered. "What is it?"

"Who was my grandfather?"

Juniper sighed. "That, I don't know. He never signed into the records, unlike your sister and aunt, nor did he ever visit. Their address was never made public. He would always send the two on errands for him - no one in the town had ever seen his face. And when Night left, Nyx and your grandfather left as well. He remains a complete mystery."

Vinia sighed as well, morose. "I - I see." She nodded. "That's all - thank you, Juniper."

Juniper slowly nodded. "You're rather welcome, dear," she replied. "It gets lonely in this library, all by myself. I enjoy when people come to visit now and again."

Juniper then flapped away. "Feel free to peruse all of the books the library has to offer at your leisure - I need to take another nap."

Vinia turned to look at me. "We'd - we'd best be going. At least, we know my aunt's name now - Nyx."

I nodded in agreement. "That's better than nothing - and now we have something else to work off of."

Still, the news that Night was with Nyx was rather worrisome. We knew next to nothing about her, but she _probably_ had access to a lot of information about us, even if Night is indisposed at the moment.

"We've left them waiting long enough," I finally said. "They're probably starving at this point."

Vinia, though, was looking off into the distance, squinting her eyes. "Am I seeing things, or is that…"

I followed her vision and found a strikingly familiar Pokémon. A Whirlipede.

"It could be any Whirlipede, you know - that's probably not… Jenga…" I trailed off because exiting a building next to the Whirlipede was a Pawniard.

A very _familiar_ Pawniard.

" _Catal_." Vinia hissed and took a step forward - until I dragged her into an alleyway off in a sideroad.

"Not here!" I whispered. "Go get Ken and Peng so we can get their help."

Vinia nodded, frowning. "Fine - but you have to stall or track them," she ordered. "We can't let them escape."

I nodded, before locking my eyes on them. "Go, _now_."

Vinia immediately popped away, and I focused on the two. They talked for a few seconds, before walking across the street, and up into - _the library!_

I snuck my way up the stairs of the library, making sure to stay a good distance near them. As they entered, I walked up to one of the nearby walls - remembering the layout of the library, I entered into a spot where the bookshelves would hide me.

As I soundlessly leaned against one of the bookshelves, I concentrated on my hearing and listened to what they were saying.

"... Nyx… kill… " My eyes widened, and I plastered myself so I could get as close as possible.

"Alright," Jenga's gravely voice said. "Which one are we getting rid of?"

"A Decidueye - Juniper, I think her name is," Catal said offhandedly. "There aren't many people in this town that remember Madam Nyx, but she wants to cover her tracks."

They were going to kill Juniper!

"Whatever." Then there was a small silence. "I've sensed her - she's in a back room, and her breathing is slow." His voice was terse. "I'm leaving, by the way."

Catal scoffed. "As if. You're going to hold her down while _I_ kill her." There was a small scratching. "Jenga, get back over here before I report you."

"I'm not 'getting back over there'." Jenga flippantly replied. "I quit."

… what?

"What?!" Catal hissed. "What are you _talking_ about?!"

"Don't think I don't have ears, _Catal_. It doesn't take too long to figure out what HUMANITY and Nyx do with those they don't have firmly under their thumb - and I follow the Nip, not _you_." Jenga laughed a cruel laugh. "It didn't take me _too_ long to figure out you were going to use the Miasma on me eventually, to lock me in."

"... so you're turning traitor, then?" There was a metal clanging sound. "Remember, these blades are stronger than your shell, and I won't protect you anymore."

"Sure - you'll need to protect yourself first, though."

"What?"

"Did you think we were the _only_ ones to enter the library just now?"

My eyes widened.

"Jenga, who else is in here with us?!" Catal's frantic voice echoed.

"I don't know, Catal, but they heard us talking behind the bookshelf. You'll have to take care of them." There was another laugh. "Goodbye, Catal. See you never."

The door to the library opened, and Jenga left.

Then a large blade appeared on the shelf next to me, and I nearly jumped in the air.

"Who's there?!" Catal roared as he cleaved through the bookshelf, pages flying everywhere. "Show yourself!"

Then the bookcase, old with age, fell apart, as Catal cuts its support from under it. Within a second, Catal and I faced each other.

"Oh. _You_." Catal sneered. "You're _Alice_ , right?" He hefted his blades. "I can take care of you."

I dodged his first attack but was caught by his second. Dark energy slammed into me, and I recoiled, retreating.

"Not going to fight back?" Catal laughed a coarse laugh. "All the easier for me."

In response, I formed a Pain Split in with my posts, before throwing it at him. Catal easily sidestepped the slow attack with a sneer.

"Can't use your fire, can you? Not without burning down the entire library, at least."

Catal had figured out my problem quickly - with all of the books and bookshelves around, I couldn't attack him with my fire. Otherwise, the entire building would catch on fire.

And with only ineffective Ghost-type moves on my side, any interaction would result in more pain for me.

Luckily, I didn't have to. "See ya!"

I memorized Catal's surprised face and dived through the wall, phasing back through it. He would easily cut through it, but it would move us onto even terrain - there, I could fight against him.

Sure enough, the wall was soon cut down behind me, and Catal faced me, frowning. I let a small smile grace my face.

"Too afraid to face me down here?" I taunted, loving the way his face contorted.

"You think this is funny?" He retorted, face warping with fury. "You think this is funny?!"

All I did was smirk, as a few small chuckles escaped me.

Then his face relaxed before mirroring me. "I suppose you're right." He turned around. "You already knew everything - and soon enough, word will reach this backwater town about your 'felonies'. Nobody will take what you say seriously."

Then he started sharpening his blades together. "And I have a _different_ target, anyway." He headed back inside. "Hopefully, she woke up. Make this _fun_ , you know?"

I cursed, before heading in after him with a Shadow Ball at hand, flinging it at him.

Catal twisted and slashed through the ball. "Knew you couldn't leave that old librarian to die - your predictable that way, after all."

I said nothing and instead shot a Confuse Ray at Catal. He slashed through it with a Night Slash.

"Just tell me - _how_ do you plan on facing me? Do you think you can find a way to attack me?" He leaped at me with blades outstretched, slashing precisely. I was only barely able to dodge. "Or do you plan on winning a war of attrition?"

Then his blackened blades caught me, and I let out a gasp of pain.

"Or do you just plan to fall before me." Catal pulled up his blades to strike, looking only at me.

What _I_ saw in Catal's blade, though, made me smile.

"Nope - my friends will help me."

Catal's eyes widened as he looked up - only to see a flying kick from Ken hit him in the face. He was sent flying backward through three bookshelves and landed in a heap at the bottom. Ken jumped into the fray after him.

Vinia and Peng ran up beside me. "Sorry for the delay!" Vinia wheezed. "They took forever to wake up!"

"No problem - and next time, poke them awake! It always works!" I replied, before looking at the brutal battle between Ken and Catal.

Peng winced. "Ooh, that has _got_ to hurt." She didn't sound too sorry for Catal, though, as Ken outmatched him. "Evolution sure gave Ken the advantage he needed."

We watched silently as Ken broke one of Catal's blades with a powerful stomp, as well as Catal's resulting cry.

"Do you think we should stop this?" Peng finally said. "I mean-"

"No, let Ken rough him up a little more." Vinia interrupted. "I want to know why he came to this library."

"To kill Juniper," I answered instead. Vinia and Peng turned to look at me, surprised. "I don't know why, but Nyx wanted to kill her."

"Who's Juniper?" Peng scratched her head. "Oh, and who's Nyx?"

"We'll tell you later, Peng."

We turned to Catal, who was lying on the ground, groaning at the beating Ken gave him. Ken viciously smirked.

"That was _cathartic_ ," Ken informed them, a wide smile splitting his face. Then it turned to worry. "Where's Jenga?" He demanded from Catal

Catal spat on the ground. "That _traitor!_ " He snarled.

Ken looked at me hopefully, and I nodded. "Jenga left Catal and his organization - HUMANITY."

HUMANITY… they knew about humans and decided to name their organization after them.

Night, Falcon, Nyx, Myga, Kol, Catal, Jenga… they were all embroiled in the same scheme, in the same conspiracy, which just kept growing larger. Every day it got more and more confusing.

Then I looked at the prone Catal and realized that we _finally_ had our source of answers.

I grinned, as Catal looked at me with anger.

"Guys, let's ask some _questions_."

* * *

(?)

Tears flowed from my cheeks as I left the steeple in shame. I - I couldn't help, because of a _stupid_ mistake I had made yesterday!

Last night, I had tasted a Cheri Pastry for the first time. We weren't allowed to eat them, but I found one under my door, as a gift. Curiosity had overwhelmed me - I thought that the great Dialga wouldn't have minded me having one little taste.

I mean, it's just a pastry! Nothing more, nothing less! They never even said why we weren't supposed to eat them, and - and it looked so _yummy_!

So I took one _small_ nibble - just _one_! Then Miss Angelia found the crumbs under my station this morning, and I… I…

… I - I tried to defend myself. I said that someone had planted the crumbs underneath my station, that the stupid _annoying_ Rephti had put them there so that I would get in trouble.

And stupid, _stupid_ Repthi said I was lying!

Miss Angelia said that I had to be punished for it, so I had to go scrub the bottom of the desks we learned from, and repair _all_ of the books, _and_ scrub all the medical room's bedpans!

At that point, I sinned. In my head, I cursed the great Dialga, and told him his rules were _stupid_! To his _face_!

I mean - it was just a small thought. Just a small thought, nothing more than that! I didn't break my Time Gear charm, or break one of the sacred clocks, or anything like that! All I did was think that the pastry rule was stupid, because it _was_! It was just a yummy pastry - nothing more!

After I had finished repairing the books ( I didn't use the glue - I just fixed it with magic instead), I went to the medical room. Dr. Sahira was working on a book, writing things down.

As I came in, she turned to me. "So, you're Fey, right?" Her voice was terse and rather disapproving.

I scowled. "Yeah." What about it.

Using magic, Dr. Sahira pulled out a book from her bookshelf and consulted it. I recognized it as a book of discipline - it was enchanted to change every time a new punishment was given. "Let's see - this morning, crumbs of a... Cheri Pastry… were found under your workstation."

Dr. Sahira sighed, before snapping the book shut, and looking at me with… _pity_?

"I'm so sorry," Dr. Sahira commiserated. "I pray that you face your grief with open arms."

"Wh-what?!" I stammered. "What are you talking about - what grief?!"

Dr. Sahira looked at me, surprised. "Haven't you heard of the curse of the Cheri Pastry?"

"The what?!" It sounded _vaguely_ familiar, now that I've heard it said out loud

Dr. Sahira sighed. "Ah - you have forgotten the warnings, then. I should remind the teachers to go over that one more time, before any more fall victim to the Pastry."

"What _curse_ are you talking about?!"

"Very well - I will remind you, Fey." Dr. Sahira created an illusion of the Pastry next to me. "This is a Cheri Pastry, correct?"

I nodded. "Yes, but-"

"Good - now, you might be wondering exactly why I know what it looks like, Fey."

"Not really"

"I know what it looks like," Dr. Sahira continued. "Because I have eaten one before. It was perhaps the worst mistake of my life."

I gulped. "What do you mean?"

"Before I worked as the doctor of Helliana Town," she explained with a smile on her face. "I was the medical matron of the Venture Base of Jeden City. It was a pleasant life, and I was even training an apprentice, a Togetic, to take over for me. Everything was going well for me."

The smile fell to a scowl. "The joy, the pleasure - it had weakened me spiritually. Everything was going so _right_ , and I thought nothing could bring me down. I-I challenged myself. I thought that I would be able to take the curse of the Cheri Pastry."

Dr. Sahira turned away. "The next day, I was fired. The new Captain - a Blaziken - had decided that I wasn't fit to work anymore. I, I tried to recover in the rest of the city - but within a week, there were new laws placed that made it nearly impossible for Ghost-types to live in Jeden. I couldn't even go to buy food - it was _that_ bad!"

Dr. Sahira sighed one last time. "Finally, I couldn't take it anymore. I came back here and begged them to perform the curse-breaking ritual. It succeeded, but it was too late. My mother had died by _accident_ at that point." Dr. Sahira's eyes were flames.

"That is the curse of the Cheri Pastry, Fey. Once you take your bite, you will be cursed with misfortune and pain, and the curse can only be lifted by a lengthy ritual." Dr. Sahira turned to me. "This curse is only for Temporalists like ourselves - it doesn't affect those who don't believe the truth."

I, meanwhile, was hyperventilating when I realized what had happened. "I'm - I'm cursed with bad luck?"

Dr. Sahira nodded, before turning back to her writing. "Soon, a ritual will be conducted to relieve you of your curse. You must still face your punishment of breaking the coven's rules, though. Now, clean the bedpans, Fey," she ordered.

I nodded, before picking up a rag with magic and wiping off the various stains that had accumulated on the bedpans. I tried my best to concentrate on the cleaning, but my thoughts kept on wandering to what Dr. Sahira had said.

The Cheri Pastry - it was already in action, wasn't it? My punishment was a result of the curse, as well as my failure to lie.

This wasn't _just_ punishment for breaking the rules - it was also the curse in action.

But soon, they would break the curse, and things would go back to normal.

Thank Dialga.

"Dr. Sahira, Dr. Sahira!" Miss Angelia burst into the medical room, eyes widened with disbelief. "There's an emergency - a Piplup has fallen unconscious in the entrance!"

Dr. Sahira immediately got up. "Lead me to him," she commanded, before turning to me. "Fey, continue cleaning. Make sure at least one bed is fit to use"

I quickly nodded, before resuming my cleaning.

Five minutes later, and I was wondering when Dr. Sahira was going to get back. Was it an injury that was going to take a long time to heal, or did it need to be healed on-site, or…

The door quickly banged open, and Dr. Sahira quickly rushed back in, the Piplup floating in beside her. I stood to attention, ready to listen to what Dr. Sahira had to say.

"Fey," she immediately ordered. "Make sure he doesn't wake up, while I produce a White Herb draught. Keep watch and tell me if there are any changes in his behavior."

I nodded. "Understood, ma'am." As I said that, another Pokémon was floated in, a Turtwig. He was unconscious as well, his head lolling awkwardly.

"Make sure he doesn't get up - he'll cause trouble if he does so." I nodded - just as some bottles of green powder fell onto the Piplup, accidentally tipping over its shelf over the bed.

The glass smashed on the metal headboard and spewed all over the Piplup. I quickly backed away.

"Good heavens, Fey, what are you…" Dr. Sahira rushed in, only to look at the scene. "Oh, dear." She turned to me, anger blossoming on her face. "Leave _immediately._ "

"But I-"

"The curse, Fey!" She shouted. "The curse!"

Protests died on my lip as I realized.

"This treatment is more important than you can ever imagine," Dr. Sahira explained. "Your curse is the _worst_ thing that could happen right now. Leave, before it affects them any more than it already has."

She turned to the Piplup. "I don't know how this will affect the memory erasure, either. I'll have to wait for it to wear off."

She then turned back to me, who was still standing there. " _Leave_!"

I fled from the room and ran through the halls of the steeple. I bumped into a few more coven members, who didn't give me a second glance as they fervently talked amongst themselves.

"... prophecy," I overheard. I didn't bother hearing the rest of what they said, instead, I ran through the halls as fast as I could.

I didn't want to mess anything up anymore, after all.

 _SLAM!_

On my way out, I had bumped into someone. Looking at her, I balked.

"Fey." Rephti looked at me with disdain. "The Pastry Eater."

The other Misdreavus and Mismagius around us started muttering worriedly, and I realized that the longer I stayed here, the more danger I would soon be in.

Dr. Sahira was _kind_ \- and she was angry with me. The others found out I had the Curse of the Cheri Pastry - I wouldn't go away with just a yell and a warning this time.

I ran out of the steeple, crying.

Why _now?_! Why _today?_!

I fled through the town, before leaving to the forest. After all, the farther I was from other people, the fewer people would see me, and the curse would have less of an effect on me.

I ran and ran and ran and ran, and I ran until I could run no more. Eventually, I found myself lost in the forest.

Then I found myself near a small shack at the base of the volcano. It was on the border of it and the forest. A small window slowly swayed back and forth in the wind.

I sighed. "Well, this is as good a place as any." After all, there was no telling how long I'd have to stay away from civilization. There had to be a purification ritual, so they could remove the curse from me. But who knows how long it would take for them to prepare it.

I'll wait a day or two here before heading back. That should give them enough time. After that, I'll apologize to the Piplup for causing him so much trouble.

I noticed the setting sun. It had almost fallen beneath the horizon, so I'd best be getting myself comfortable for the night.

I then headed into the shack through a window, before immediately fleeing back outside it.

Inside the shack was a small Vanillite girl - a _Shiny_ Vanillite girl. She was just _sitting_ there, too - she wasn't very happy, either, from the way she was sitting with her arms crossed.

Either way, it was _dangerous_ for me to be near other people. I needed to keep my distance in case the Pastry curse affected any other people.

"Hello?"

Or it could be taken out of my hands entirely.

The Vanillite peeked her head out of the door and looked at me, inquisitive. "Who are you?" She asked, sounding tired. "And do you have anything to do with Night?"

"Night?" I shook my head. "Who's that?"

But the Vanillite girl just kept staring at me. "Oh." She walked back into her room. "It's not like I can do anything about it anyway."

Logic dictated that I should run away as fast as possible, to put the maximum amount of distance possible between us. That would prevent her from feeling the effects of the curse (if it has a limited range).

Instead, I floated inside with her, for nothing other than a morbid sense of curiosity. She looked uncaring whatsoever, except for a poignant, continuous stare…

We just sat there, not moving, just sort of looking at each other. Eventually, I decided that introductions were in order.

"My name is Fey."

"My name is Strawberry," she replied. "What are you doing here?"

"What do you mean?" I asked with a small snort. "It's not like this place is off-limits, right? I just went exploring, and saw a shack, and thought that it would be a good place to visit…"

Judging from Strawberry's unimpressed look, I hadn't done much to convince her. I sighed. "Okay, so I was running away," I admitted. "It's not like I _want_ to be here, no offense."

"None taken," Strawberry said offhandedly, as though it didn't concern her too much. "You - do you know anything about Night?"

"Who?" I raised my eyebrow - the name sounded _somewhat_ familiar - as if I had heard it a magazine or a newspaper, or something like that. We were allowed to read them, of course.

Strawberry sighed. "Oh, good. I thought you were one of them." Strawberry frowned. "It - it hasn't been easy for me, recently. I've cried so much I think I've tapped myself out."

I snorted. "Cry? What are you, five?"

"Seven," she replied with sadness. "Though I don't feel like I'm seven, for some reason." She looked at me. "Why were you running away - are you in trouble or something?"

"Yeah," I admitted. "I broke a vial of green powder over someone's face. It - it wasn't exactly pretty."

Strawberry winced slightly.

"It wasn't just that, though," I was quick to assure - or doom myself, those were practically the same in this instance. "I also ate a Cheri Pastry."

She looked at me with confusion. "...um… I'm sorry?" Strawberry scratched at her head. "How is that bad?"

"Because it cursed me." That reminded me that I should probably be high-tailing it out of here - Strawberry was a nice girl, and I didn't want to make any misfortune occur around her if I could help it.

But for some reason, I found that I didn't want to leave. Strawberry, strangely, had been growing on me. Maybe it was the utter apathy she was showing, but I didn't feel like I wanted to leave anytime soon.

"Curse?" Strawberry looked rather curious. "How could a _Cheri Pastry_ curse you?"

"Bad luck, misfortune, grief, and misery?" I shrugged. "Everything going wrong, including spilled bottle on a patient's head."

Strawberry winced. "Patient?"

"Because I ate the Pastry, I had to clean up the bedpans of the medical room in the steeple," I explained. "We're not allowed to eat the Pastry, so it was a punishment. After that, the curse caused the bottle to fall on a metal headboard and spill the green powder over him."

Strawberry nodded. "Okay - well, you can stay here for now," she offered.

I, though, shook my head. "I'm sorry, Strawberry, but I can't. I don't want you to face the curse."

Strawberry scoffed. "Like I care about some measly _curse_." The last part was spoken with derision. "I've faced worse than a broken bottle."

"Tell that to the Piplup who got covered," I muttered.

Strawberry, though, went wide-eyed. "I - did you say Piplup?"

"Yeah?" I was rather confused. "What about it?"

"Nothing, it's just that - well, were they accompanied by a Turtwig?" Her voice was urgent.

I nodded. "Yeah - do you know them?" She didn't seem the type to be related to those two - then again, I had only seen them for a few seconds, so I didn't know too much about them.

"What happened?" Strawberry pressed. "Why were they in need of medical care, Fey?"

"I don't know, Strawberry - they never told me. I was rushed out because of the curse, so I couldn't stick around to ask questions."

Strawberry looked at me, unimpressed, before getting up. "Then I guess we'll have to go find out ourselves." She floated over to the door and opened it.

"Strawberry, wait!" I shouted at her, causing her to turn around with an impatient look on her face.

"Yeah?" She asked. "We have to _go_ , Fey, so make it _quick_!"

"You don't have to snap at me," I frowned. "Regardless, I can't go back - not now, at least. The curse will be active until they undo it, and it'll probably take some time to get ready, so I'm going to wait a day or two."

Strawberry stared at me. "Fine."

I sighed. Finally, she was showing some common sense-

"You can stay here, then. I'll go and see what happened myself." She continued her path out.

My mouth gaped as she strode into the forest before I ran after her. "Strawberry, stop! You can't!"

She turned to me again. "And why not?" she challenged. "I'm their friend - I have as much right as anyone else to find out what happened to them!"

I had to think of an excuse, _quickly_. I don't know why, but I couldn't help but blurt something out - it was as if a force I didn't know took control of me. "The treatment! You'll interfere with their treatment!"

Strawberry's eyes narrowed. "And what is their treatment?"

I racked my brains, trying to remember exactly what Dr. Sahira told me she was going to do to treat them. Then it came in a small surge. "Memory! They're going to erase his memory."

Ignoring Strawberry's gaping mouth, I continued. "I think he had a headache or something, so they're going to erase his memories of the incident. I'm not sure what they're going to do to the Turtwig, though."

"Erase memories…?" Strawberry mouthed, wide-eyed. Then her eyes sharpened before she took off in a sprint.

"Strawberry, where are you going?!" Strawberry continued forward, not even acknowledging what I had said. "Strawberry!"

Strawberry was nearly out of sight before I cursed. Whatever was making her run like that, I had to follow, if only to make sure she didn't do anything stupid.

It took a long while for us to run through the forest, and by the end of it, I was panting heavily. Strawberry, though, must have been made of sterner stuff (ice _was_ rather hard), because she wasn't even winded. That, or she wasn't paying attention to her breathing. "Dusknoir!"

Dusknoir?

"Yes, Strawberry?" A tired voice rang out from across the clearing we entered - as a matter of fact, we _weren't_ near the town, as I had assumed, but instead were headed in a completely different direction.

Then an _Inverted_ Dusknoir floated forward, menace and evil floating off of him in spades. I had never been in the presence of an Inverted Pokemon before, and I sometimes thought that their evil was overstated. Now I could see how foolish I was.

Another event caused by the Pastry, I assume. I have to get the ritual done on me before my life spirals down even further.

Strawberry floated forward. "Sky and Naetle might be in danger!"

Wait, what?

The Inverted Dusknoir's eye widened. "Truly?" He winced. "What has happened to them in their absence?"

"I don't know, and neither does Fey over here." She gestured to me as I shrank back from the monster's gaze. "All I know is that she spilled a bottle of green powder over Sky and that they plan to erase his memories again!"

The Piplup - Sky - had his memories erased before? What kind of life did these guys live?

"We have to act quickly, Strawberry," Dusknoir said after a moment's consideration. "There is no valid reason I can think of where someone's memory would need to be modified - not on such early notice, and certainly not to someone of Sky's character. Where are they being held?"

Strawberry turned to me, but I had enough with the games. "What are you even talking about?! You're making it sound like he's in some kind of danger!"

The Inverted Dusknoir stared at me coldly. "Sky has had issues with memory modification and loss in the past. Something like this - combined with the Miasma and attempted hypnosis from Night - might be enough to break through his impressive mental resistances. Your mistake has brought us time, however, to steal him away."

The Dusknoir bowed. "Thank you for that."

I wasn't understanding. "W-what…?" I whispered. "You're - you're going to kidnap one of the steeple's patients?!"

Dusknoir nodded. "I'm sure they mean no harm, Miss Fey," he said consolingly - though I could still see to the monster within with no effort whatsoever. "But they, in their negligence and malpractice, may cause more problems than they could ever _hope_ of solving."

Dusknoir turned to Strawberry. "Strawberry, keep her here," he commanded. "Make sure she doesn't come to stop us - I'll rescue them." Strawberry nodded as Dusknoir quickly started floating in the direction of Helliana Town.

I made to stop him, but Strawberry stopped me in my tracks. "You aren't going anywhere," she promised.

As I tried to get around her - it wasn't easy - I seethed. "How can you listen to him?!" I shouted angrily. "He's Inverted! He's probably planning to kill them - to kill everyone! Can't you tell that?!"

Strawberry stared at me. "If you stop him," she started. "You will fulfill that curse you're so scared of. I trust him more than I trust you - he's done more for me than youhave."

I grimaced. "So it's come to this, huh." I started charging my moves. "I'm sorry, Strawberry - but the steeple comes first."

I fired a Confuse Ray at her. Unfortunately, I wasn't exactly an expert in fighting, considering I've _never_ done it before. Still, I should be able to beat some measly Vanillite girl.

Strawberry, though, dodged it, so I started charging another attack - an Astonish. If I got close enough, I could hit her, and she wouldn't be able to dodge it.

With that meager plan in mind, I charged her, narrowly dodging the Icicle Spears that came my way. Like I wouldn't see that attack coming from a mile away.

I leaped upon her with my Astonish bearing down on her, only to have in countered by Strawberry's own Astonish - she knew the move too, then.

I grinned - all the better. With not even a second's pause, I used Spite on her. As she gasped in pain, I knew it took hold.

"How about that?!" I crowed as she panted on the ground. I _could_ attack her even further, but that's not my style (for as much of a style as I could show in my first battle). With a quick smirk, I ran past the winded and weak Strawberry and fled toward the steeple.

Fortunately, the Inverted Dusknoir was going the wrong way. Unfortunately,he was faster than I was, and there was no telling how long it would take for him to get to the steeple once he figured out the right direction. I had to get there as fast as I could before he could sneak off with the patients - who knows what terrible things he was planning to do to them?!

It took a scant ten minutes to arrive at the steeple, the Dusknoir nowhere in sight. Fearing the worst, I entered through the main entrance (I couldn't phase through walls yet - I didn't know if the Dusknoir could, though. The possibility was worrying).

I barged into the main doors, catching the attention of the Mismagius guards (we were nearly all Mismagius - it was a very insular community). That attention was all negative, too, since they recognized me.

"Fey!" One of them roared - I didn't know his name. "What are you doing here?! You have the curse - leave!"

I balked - then remembered I was on a mission, an important one. "Forget about me!" I tried to argue. "It's about the patients - the Piplup and the Turtwig!"

Their eyes widened. "Are you talking about the Piplup of the prophecy?"

"The prophecy?" What they had said tickled something in the back of my mind. "I'm - I'm not sure, but I know their names are Sky and Naetle - that's for sure!"

The guards cursed. "Hurry up and tell us, then - what's going on?!"

"There's an Inverted Dusknoir coming after them!"

The knowledge seemed to crash into them. "What..?"

"There is an Inverted Dusknoir." I enunciated very carefully. "He knows that they are in the medical room, and he has come to steal them away."

The guards stood still, trying to comprehend this for a second.

"Oh…" One of them managed to squeak out. "I see."

He ran back into the steepled shouting. "Intruder alert! Intruder alert! Inverted Dusknoir after the subject of the prophecy!"

There again with the 'prophecy' thing - I remember something like it in our lessons, but I can't remember what. It sounded awfully familiar, though.

Miss Angelia came running out, her face chalk-white. "Fey," she said slowly. "You - you said there's an Inverted Dusknoir after Sky?" Her face was practically begging me to say 'No, I was joking, I wanted to fool you, hahaha".

But before I could even open my mouth, she had decided that she wasn't going to wait for me to respond, and dove inside my memories with her mind. I stayed quiet because she was allowed to do this - she was my teacher, after all.

Then, in a few seconds, she retracted her probe. "Oh, Dialga almighty…" She shook her head. "You've messed up, Fey - you've messed up badly."

My head bowed, contrite. "I'm sorry, Miss Angelia," I apologized. "I've put some patients in danger and-"

"If they were only _patients_ , Fey." Miss Angelia sighed. "Why _today_ , of all days - to deal with the curse _now_!" She looked over me with sadness. "Do you know _who_ Sky is, Fey?"

I shook my head. "From the way everyone is reacting, I can tell he's important. They said he's the subject of some prophecy?"

Miss Angelia looked at me with askance. "'Some prophecy'? Fey, this is perhaps the most important prophecy of Naixe!"

Some cold sweat came over me. "What -what are you talking about?!"

"Do you remember the Calamity of Time, Fey?"

I nodded - how couldn't I? It was nearly the Apocalypse!

"Sky is the descendant of the human hero and has the power of the Dimensional Scream as well. It is his destiny to find the new human and come to his aid to serve against a new threat to Naixe - one perhaps as strong as the Calamity."

…

…

…

"Fey?!"

I couldn't think - how could I have messed up _this_ badly?! If I - if I brought upon another Calamity with my actions…

"We have to stop him," I whispered. "We have to stop him before he gets anywhere close to Sky!"

Then I felt _it_ \- his unmistakable menace. I knew that we had run out of time.

Miss Angelia and I turned to find Dusknoir floating at the entrance to the forest, Strawberry resting on his shoulder.

"Thank you, Fey." The Dusknoir smiled. "Strawberry noticed which direction you ran to - and so we followed you."

I blanched - the curse had struck again. _Again_ , I had doomed us all.

Then I grew determined - I wouldn't let the Dusknoir, nor Strawberry, nor the curse, dictate my fate.

I would be the hero.

Miss Angelia was of similar thought - she vanished. Phantom Force.

A split second later, she appeared behind Dusknoir cloaked in Ghost energy roaring. My hope soared - Dusknoir wasn't even looking behind himself.

Then Dusknoir decked Miss Angelia without looking, smashing her face in with a powerful Shadow Punch.

Miss Angelia fell - unconscious. She twitched on the ground, convulsing slightly.

"Sorry," the Dusknoir said mockingly. "But I haven't come for you." He looked at me. "Fey, you'd best get out of our way."

I stood in front of him unflinchingly. "You can forget about getting to Sky," I promised. "Because I'll stop you right here."

Then, chillingly, Dusknoir began to laugh.

It wasn't a happy laugh - it was a haunting, nightmarish laugh. Usually, I'd love this kind of fear in my red necklace, so that I could use it later. But now, fear was the last thing I want to feel.

"You're - you're kidding, right?" Dusknoir put Strawberry down. "Do your best to stop her - and remember what I told you!" Strawberry nodded.

Dusknoir then disappeared into thin air and I blanched. How could he - Shadow Sneak!

I twisted around and found Dusknoir entering the steeple, face determined. "I'm coming for you, Sky, Naetle!"

I lunged forward to stop him but was pinned to the ground by an Icicle Spear. I turned to find Strawberry, just as determined as I was.

"I'm not going to lose again," she promised. I sneered - this traitor was going to get her just desserts. Preferably a Cheri Pastry, for the irony.

I started the same strategy as last time - dodge her attacks, and when she used a particularly powerful one, use Spite to rid her of her energy.

Except I _couldn't_. When I tried to get near Strawberry, she would use Icicle Spear on the _sky_. I couldn't understand why, until I closed in on her and was nearly pierced by the falling ice.

She then used the opportunity to attack me with powerful Astonishes and dodged when I tried to use Spite.

Rinse and repeat - and there was _nothing_ I could do to stop it. Astonish destroyed any long-ranged moves I knew (an admittedly small number, but still). Because I couldn't close in due to the falling Icicle Spears, I had no opportunity to attack.

Strawberry was winning this time around - and then it happened.

The Astonish ripped a painful amount of energy from me, and I screamed shrilly. But Strawberry remained unafraid and looked at me sadly.

"I'm sorry, Fey, but-" That was all she could say before her eyes widened, and she fell unconscious.

In the haze of pain, I saw Miss Angelia - shaky but floating. "I'm - I'm okay" she muttered. "It just knocked me out, thankfully - it wasn't enough to kill. The Dusknoir must have miscalculated."

I breathed a sigh of relief - what an idiot that Dusknoir was!

Miss Angelia floated forward, past the unconscious Strawberry. "Fey, stay here and keep an eye on Strawberry. Make sure she doesn't move a single muscle, got it?"

"I-"

Miss Angelia just _looked_ at me - and I knew I couldn't disobey when she looked at me like that.

"Okay."

Miss Angelia unsteadily floated into the building after that. I sighed and sat next to Strawberry.

Now that I was away from that _look_ , I began to rue my promise - I couldn't just _stay_ here while the future was at risk!

I looked at the unconscious Strawberry. I didn't want to just _leave_ her here, but I had to stay here because of what Miss Angelia said…

… you know what? Who cares about what Miss Angelia said? Literally _everything_ I do will most likely fail, so why does it matter now?

I cast a Mean Look around her - that'll stop her from escaping the general area when she wakes up. I don't know exactly how long the energy that it needs to run will last, but it'll last for a while.

Once Strawberry was secured inside the Mean Look - and defanged as a result - I ran inside the steeple, to do my best to stop Dusknoir and end the carnage (or, you know, just help).

Inside I found bodies.

Not dead, thankfully - he must be saving his energy, so he's not killing them. That didn't mean that the rest of the Mismagius and Misdreavus I encountered weren't injured, though - they were groaning, and trying to pull themselves back to levitation.

How strong can this one Dusknoir be?!

I followed the trail of destruction and mayhem through the steeple, back to the medical room. Dusknoir was a lot better at finding the medical room than he was at finding the steeple because it looked like he didn't make any wrong turns. That, or he just went into the entrances we blocked.

I arrived at the medical room - and found myself in the middle of a bloodless massacre.

Dusknoir was beating the last dregs of resistance left and right - there were attempts at his mind, attempts at debilitating spells, even a half-hearted love spell. All of them ignored (except for the love spell, which he pushed back the evil aura quite a bit. Strangely, the Dusknoir seemed to like that).

I gasped as he punched one in the jaw while nearly splitting another's head with a chop to the back of the head.

Within a minute, all of them had been reduced to nothing. Dusknoir looked only winded.

Then he turned to me.

"You guys are weak," he said casually. "I'm glad you all weren't as strong as I thought you would be - otherwise, this would have been rather difficult."

He was going to die!

I leaped forward, Astonish at the ready - only to be _flicked_ aside, like some sort of insect.

"Sorry, Fey, but I can't stick around." Dusknoir slung Sky and Naetle over his shoulder. "I can't let you cultists take over his mind - I've had enough of that to be sick of it ten times over."

I leaped again, and this time Dusknoir _swatted_ me.

"Do you mind?" He asked. "What are you even trying to accomplish?"

"Something?!" I shouted. "I'm not going to let you ruin the future!"

At this, Dusknoir stopped and slowly turned to me. "It's been a _long_ time since I've heard someone say that," he finally said. "I don't plan on doing that, though - I've had enough of Apocalypses and Calamities. I don't see why rescuing my friends would do such a thing, though."

I snorted. "Friends? _You_?!" I laughed. "Get real - you're only doing this for your personal benefit!"

At that point, I realized I had said something intrinsically dangerous. The evil aura around Dusknoir, hampered by the love spell, grew darker and more dangerous. "Watch what you say." He finally said with pain. "I'm not doing this for personal benefit."

"Can you even _hear_ yourself?!" I shouted. "Sky will become the helper of the human hero, and is a descendant of the original human hero of time! You're a parasite onto the world - nothing more!"

I didn't know how. I didn't know when. All I knew was that my face was firmly placed in the wall, and my body was slowly being squeezed.

"Shut up…. Shut up!" Dusknoir screamed in rage, the calm facade he held about himself finally shattered. "You don't know what you're talking about - either of you!"

Either of us?

"Get out of my head!" Dusknoir started bashing his head, making the two Pokémon he was holding flop around helplessly.

Dusknoir wasn't just evil - he was crazy.

Dusknoir pulled me out of the wall and looked at me with a hateful eye.

"You're _lucky_ , Fey." That final word was uttered with menace. "If I was a lesser Pokémon, you wouldn't be conscious."

"If you were as good as you think, you wouldn't be here!"

Dusknoir threw me to the ground and stalked out of the medical room, not caring about the moaning bodies he left in his wake. I knew that he would be gone and that he would take Strawberry with him. There was nothing I could do - because I was too _weak_.

Soon enough, everyone started to get up, and were already hard at work on scrying spells to find the quartet - but for some reason, none of them would work.

Eventually, they connected it to the curse of the Cheri Pastry, and within a day or so, the curse was removed from me. It was already far too late, though - the damage it had caused was done.

Because the coven went through a nightmare - we had failed in our duty to save Sky, and in doing so let him fall into the clutches of evil.

As of now, the strongest members of the coven were being trained - there was no telling how strong Dusknoir was, given how easily he had demolished the coven, but anything was better than nothing. We were going to rescue Sky before Dusknoir corrupted him beyond repair. The few memory alterations we managed would give us time.

As that strange mist that had roiled around Dusknoir flew in my blood, I growled.

I would be joining them, of course. There was no point in me just staying behind doing prayers - I _had_ to be on the front lines. I would show them why, too - every day, I would break myself to get stronger with training.

After all, I had some vendettas to keep.

* * *

…

…

…

… _what… wher… where am I?_

…

…

…

… _my… my name… right, it's…_

"Hey, what's this punk doing over here?" A voice echoed in my ears. Painfully, too.

"Looks like the typical druggie. Heh, how much Nip do you think he's had?" _Nip? What's - what's Nip?_

"I'll take care of hi-"

"No." A stronger, deeper voice rang out. "Look at his muscles - he was born to fight. We could make a good killing in the underground rings with him. He doesn't look like the kind of guy with a family or friends or any of that crap." Underground rings? Were - were they some sort of mafia?

I tried opening my eyes, but whatever had happened to me, it took all of my energy as well. Of course, that was made moot - when the voice lifted me with strong, sturdy muscles, I found my eyes opening.

"Hey, kid - what's your name."

"Let go of me…" That was all I could muster as I scrabbled weakly at his powerful arms.

"I don't think I want to. Now, what's your name?" I had more resolve than this man had in his pinky finger, though - I wouldn't answer the man's questions. I'd take whatever this man would dish out at me. I would eventually recover and escape, so I wasn't too worried.

But as I was dropped to the ground, I heard the others laughing - and for a second, I couldn't help but wonder how long it would take to recover my strength.

One of them slung me over his back - none of the passers-by gave me a second glance, except out of pity. This must have been a common occurrence, then, in this area.

This spoke of their experience.

I must have lost track of time at some point - the motion, the shifting colors… my head was finding it all hard to take, and I wondered if I was going to fall sick at some point.

But I couldn't - if I had any food in my stomach, it would have to stay there. I can't imagine these Pokémon to be hospitable.

At some point, I was flung inside a dark, damp room, a cell most likely. I could barely move a muscle as they laughed and jeered, and locked the door behind me.

"Enjoy your stay, Grovyle."


	22. 22 - A World of Nightmares

(Glacia)

Nightmares.

I've been having them for the past few days. They weren't a pleasant experience - not in the slightest. Every night I would see Merla's cold, dead face staring at me emotionlessly. I wouldn't be able to move as her dead, pleading eyes came closer, ever so closer to me, asking… 'Why?'.

Sleep wasn't easy on anyone else, either. Everyone was having vivid nightmares of their own, though they had nothing to do with Merla.

Gel, for instance, had Strawberry in his dreams. This was a normal occurrence, except the nightmares he usually had consisted of Strawberry in some sort of danger. Instead of that, he dreamt that she was constantly on the verge of death, with melted ice gurgling out of her mouth.

That was _not_ something I liked thinking about - Strawberry was a sweet kid, for the few times I had seen her, so thinking about her death wasn't pleasant in the least. Gel's nerves were frayed as a result - he'd constantly be looking around for wild pokémon and Miasma.

Koga, on the other hand, had dreams of Myga. She'd walk up to him, cry for a bit and apologize for everything, then (when he wasn't looking) stab him in the back with a fang full of electricity.

Ever since he started having those nightmares, Koga has come to trust us less and less, and rarely looks us in the eyes anymore. This only served to fuel Gel's paranoia. Let's just say they weren't on the best of terms.

Pillar wasn't as affected as we were. Maybe it was the Time Gear protecting him, or maybe it was the deluge of information Uxie dumped into his head at the lake. Either way, his dreams were much more impersonal than ours were.

They were still nightmares, of course - don't get me wrong, that was a constant among all of us. But his nightmares were of horrific tragedies - tragedies that he had known nothing about until Uxie had dumped them into his head.

I grinned as I thought about the knowledge Pillar gained.

Uxie had dumped a _lot_ of knowledge into Pillar's brain - and even though most of them were tragedies, it still was a treasure trove of information. Each day as we trekked through the continent to get to the World Abyss, I would ask him about the things Uxie had told him.

Pillar told me a _lot_ about the past few millennia of the world - particularly, the bits of history that weren't in the meager history textbooks in the Jeden Base's library. It wasn't a very pleasant history, either - the Shiny Wars were horrific, for a start.

Other events weren't as pleasant either. There were other cataclysms before the Apocalypse - the attack by the Bittercold in the Mist Continent and Dark Matter's siege on the Water Continent, for example.

The two of them, apparently, were pure forces of negativity incarnate, and spread it as far and wide as possible, with Dark Matter even trying to end the world.

I felt a strange sense of deja-vu at that knowledge. For some reason, eldritch entities loved trying to end the world. They were also beaten through the power of raw positive thinking, for some reason. Would it be able to extend to the Ahriman as well?

Something to think about for later.

Other than the nightmares we faced each night, there wasn't much else trouble traveling to the World Abyss. The Grass Continent was abandoned - we were the only civilized Pokémon here. So all we had to face was the odd feral Pokémon, which we could easily scare away with little effort.

With a little bit of effort, we entered the World Abyss Mystery Dungeon.

* * *

(World Abyss)

The World Abyss was _difficult_.

I only now realized how easy the Mystery Dungeons I've been facing until now were. The Dungeon did almost everything in its power to stop us on our way down to where Giratina was supposedly waiting for us.

The Voltorb, Poochyena, and Taillow were easy enough to deal with - we could deal with them on our own. No, what was dangerous was their _evolved_ forms - Electrode, Mightyena, and Swellow. They were _incredibly_ strong, so much so that we needed the entire team concentrating their attacks on them to defeat.

The Dungeon would also shift its walls and such to stop us from progressing. We would be forced to go backward and find a new way to the Staircase, every _single_ time.

Once a floor, we would encounter a Monster House - and after we barely survived the first one, we just ran as far away as possible, not even caring if the Staircase was in the room the Monster House was in. We would have to wait for an hour or two for the constructs to disperse before heading back through.

That was the most positive bit about the Dungeon - for some reason, it wouldn't capture us, no matter how long we waited. In fact, the longer we stayed on the floor, the fewer constructs we would have to face - and they would be weaker as well.

A blessing from Arceus, perhaps?

Either way, once we realized this, we decided to take our time traveling through the World Abyss. We would go through only a few floors per day, spending most of our time recuperating from the battles we had to go through.

Or at least, we _thought_ it took days. We didn't have any sense of time in there without the sun to guide us. We slept for as long as we dared, the nightmares more powerful than ever, then continued onward.

It took all of our patience and determination, but a week or so after we first entered the World Abyss, we were nearing the end (hopefully).

The terrain of the Dungeon was shifting the farther in we went. On the top floors, the Dungeon looked like soil and dirt, like any other cave-like dungeon. As we went farther in, the soil darkened to something resembling topsoil, then granite and bedrock.

Then, fifteen floors in, the Dungeon shifted its look completely, to something I was _much_ more familiar with.

The walls were weaved with multicolored ropes, creating a beautiful ambience to the Dungeon. On the floor, small lights glittered on a cold stone floor. Looking at it, I couldn't help but be reminded of the dream world that I had entered every night until recently.

As we continued traveling farther and farther into the World Abyss, it began to look more and more like the dream world. The stone floor started gaining the rainbow colors I was more familiar with, while the ropes grew more fine every floor we went through, eventually merging into each other.

And since the fifteenth floor was when this change occurred, it probably wasn't too foolish to think that the World Abyss was only thirty floors deep or so.

* * *

 **World Abyss 29F**

I had been keeping count of the floors ever since we entered, so if my predictions were right, this was one of the final floors before we left the Dungeon.

I had told Koga this as well - and while he looked at me with eyes shadowed with sorrow, he solemnly nodded.

"It'll be… nice," he admitted. "To get out of this Dungeon. I can't help but feel like someone is watching over our shoulder at all times, waiting for a chance to strike."

I nodded, though I didn't completely understand. But for some reason, my nervousness tripled. Suddenly, I saw shadows around every corner, even when there weren't any. Within ten minutes of Koga's small declaration, I was also feeling paranoid, and couldn't stop looking over my shoulder every minute or so.

I didn't tell Pillar or Gel - Gel didn't need something else eroding whatever patience and happiness he had left. Pillar didn't need to worry, either.

"It's almost like the Ahriman is here again," I muttered to myself - then froze in place, as an awful, awful feeling tore through my heart. A familiar feeling.

" _No…_ " I whispered to myself in a small amount of horror, gripping my chest as if trying to expel the faint feeling of Miasma. "No… how…"

Why was it happening _again_? I thought that when the Ahriman left me for Henka's body, he took all of the Miasma in me with him - Necrozma said that I didn't have any left in me!

When did some get back into me-

Fogbound Lake!

I smacked my head and groaned as the Miasma relished in my ill-fortune. Uxie was swamped with Miasma - what was the likelihood some flowed back into me?

Then a small thought occurred to me. Exactly _why_ was there Miasma at the Lake?

Miasma grew on its own, through the power of negative emotions. It propagated and spread like a virus - but it isn't created out of _nothing_. You can feed it, grow it, strengthen it… but it has to exist at some level for growth to start.

Merla once told me about her birth - how Miasma infected her egg. She had no Inverted relatives, so nobody could purposely infect her. That meant that there had to be some Miasma just floating around, waiting to take advantage of her. And some of that ambient Miasma could enter me as well.

But - but if Miasma could be _anywhere_ , then why… how did it Invert Uxie so quickly? Uxie is one of the Legendaries - how did he fall faster to the Miasma than I did?

And the presence of Miasma doesn't instantly turn you evil - it's more of a constant evil whispering in your ear. It only managed to multiply and change me in the first place when I started chanting the Ahriman's name in the first place. Uxie has more mental resistance than I do, but he near-instantly lost his will to it.

Another chill coursed through my blood.

This is so tiring… and I'm just too confused.

I just want this all to be over. I don't want to fight anymore - I just… I'm tired of fighting. I'm only _ten_ \- why do I have to be important in the battle for the safety of the world?!

My mind wandered back to Eonia, to the castle, to my brother and sister… to Dad…

… to Mom…

… I miss home.

Wearily, I trudged onward.

* * *

 **World Abyss 30F**

The floor was empty. There were no constructs, no hallways, no items. Nothing. Just one single room, with no staircases.

This was the end of the World Abyss.

So where was Giratina?

I slowly sat down as my teammates began inspecting the room for clues on how we would be able to progress without a Staircase. Koga immediately started looking for openings, crevasses, etc, to see if there was any secret switch or something we had to activate. I don't think Giratina would do something like that, though.

Pillar started smashing the walls, trying to tear it down with nothing but brute force. It was a slow process - he was only able to tear away an inch of rock from the wall. Judging by the shifting and rippling of the stone, it wouldn't last too long if he stopped.

Gel, looking at small cracks in the walls that Pillar was creating, was using ice to wedge itself into the walls and break it. While progress was certainly faster, the wall repaired itself too quickly for Gel's wedges to do anything more than superficial damage to the wall.

Pillar found himself tired soon enough, stopping for a couple of seconds for a short break. That was long enough for the wall to repair itself completely, completely negating any progress Pillar had made over the last ten minutes or so.

Pillar groaned, turning to Gel. "Any new ideas?" Gel, though, was too busy thinking, and as a result, he turned a cold shoulder to Pillar.

He turned to me. "Any ideas, Glacia?"

I shook my head. "I don't think we'll be able to break the wall - it regenerates too fast."

Pillar looked at me, somewhat unimpressed. "I can _tell_ that we can't break it - no, what _else_ can we do?"

I sighed. "I don't know, Pillar. I'm just… just feeling kind of tired right now." I leaned up against one of the walls. "Tell me if you guys make any progress - I'm going to take a nap."

Pillar looked at me with inscrutable eyes, then slowly nodded. "Have nice dreams, Glacia."

I probably wouldn't, given my recent track record. Nevertheless, I shot Pillar a small smile and rested my back against the wall. Within a few seconds, I had fallen into a deep slumber.

* * *

I woke up in a familiar place.

"The dream world…" I whispered to myself - and this wasn't where I had fallen asleep either. This was where I would usually wake up, such as the night when I first time-traveled or the time Necrozma summoned me here a month ago.

This was where we were _supposed_ to be - where the World Abyss was supposed to take us. Instead, I was here alone, while the others were somewhere else.

Wait… in the dream world, I can still interact with things even if I'm asleep. I can just find them from the outside and break them out!

I immediately put my head to the ground and did my best to start tracking them. There weren't many scents in the dream world, and I spent the last few weeks with Gel, Koga, and Pillar. I have their scents firmly memorized, so it shouldn't take too long for me to locate them with my nose.

Unfortunately, I couldn't smell anything where I stood, so I started moving around in the dream world, trying to find a place where I could start smelling them (and therefore, move the search for Giratina forward).

As I searched, I took note of the landscape. There wasn't much difference in where I had appeared in the dream world and everywhere else. I usually appeared near where Necrozma was, so we would be able to get to him again if I remembered where I had appeared.

Then Necrozma could take us to Giratina… that is, if he didn't instantly destroy me for harboring Miasma.

The Miasma inside me relished the thought - how familiar _was_ I with the Miasma if I could tell its _mood_?

I shook my head and tried to concentrate on my nose, sniffing around to sense any of my team's scents. Still, there was nothing…

… actually…

What was _that_ smell? It was unfamiliar, but it was _something_ \- and hopefully, not Necrozma.

I stuck my nose to the ground, and followed the traces of the scent as closely as possible, trying to get close to the new Pokémon as much as possible. It took a few minutes, but the scent grew stronger. Running in the direction of the scent, I spotted a shadowed figure in the distance.

I then narrowed my eyes, because the figure looked rather strange - then it shifted and morphed into something much smaller.

I ran toward the figure, which started walking away from me.

"Hey!" I shouted at the figure, who kept on walking away from me. "Stop! I need to talk to you!"

Then, halfway to the figure, I stopped - because I recognized them... or should I say _her_.

"M-merla…?" I whispered to myself, uncomprehending.

The Inverted Larvesta turned to me, eyes shadowed. Then a soft voice rang out. "Why did you say it…?"

"Merla, you're…" Merla was standing there, looking like she always did. "You're here."

I bowed my head. "I let you die, and I couldn't do anything. Because I was captured, you had to come to save me, and - and you died in the process. I'm… I'm sorry. If there's _anything_ I could do to apologize, please, just tell me."

"No," Merla gently said, and I looked up at her again - only to be faced with frigid eyes. The eyes she had when I first met her, the ones that only know hate and pain. "No, that's not what I care about. Tell me… why did you say it?"

I gulped, a little confused. "Say - say what?"

"That word… the Ahriman…" She softly intoned, the chill of the Miasma striking deep in my soul. "Why did you say it to Myga, at the campsite?"

"Because - because Necrozma told me too," I answered, feeling a little confused and concerned. "Merla, I-"

"No, Glacia, don't apologize," Merla gently shushed. "Please, just continue. Necrozma told you to - why did you obey?"

"Because he was… threatening my life?" I tilted my head. "Merla, what are you saying?"

"Necrozma was ready to kill you, right?" Merla said. "So why did you obey? He didn't have your best interests at heart - only his own. What made you think that what he was going to do was going to be, at best, harmless?"

"I didn't," I answered, feeling incredibly uncomfortable. "The name gave me a few chills, but I didn't see anything wrong with it until later."

Merla ignored me. "So you didn't know what was going to happen, then. You thought the word was _harmless_ , for no other reason than that first chill. The chain of events the uttering of that word started… it killed me. You thought that word was _harmless_."

"Merla, I-"

"No, Glacia." Merla cut me off, eyes furious. "I don't care that you got captured. I don't care that you couldn't fight the Ahriman off, that you let me die. I don't even care that you ran away from us, from _me_."

"No, what I care about is that first utterance. The word that had doomed me - the Ahriman."

A feeling of despair wracked my body. "Merla, what are you saying?!"

"I will let you go soon enough, Glacia," Merla promised. "But you must be punished for what you did to me."

Merla took a deep breath. "Ahriman."

The chill of the Miasma flowed mirthfully inside. "Merla, no, _stop_ -"

"Ahriman."

The chill kept on growing. "Merla-"

"Ahriman." Merla's frozen eyes focused on me. "Ahriman. Ahriman. Ahriman."

Ice started clawing its way through my veins, and frost started to appear in cursed fractals on the stone floor.

At this point, I sprung into action, ripping my paws from the floor and jumping away. "Merla, stop, _please_! I'm begging you!" My eyes were downcast. "I - please, just stop saying it!"

"No," Merla intoned. "You will be punished the way you killed me - through the power of the Ahriman!"

 _What_?

Then, as the Miasma roiled inside me, I realized something.

Merla, even at her most spiteful, was never one to torture someone. She was rude, impolite, crass… but she was kind nonetheless. Throughout the time I've known her, she's _never_ been one to cause unnecessary harm.

And _this_? This was no _punishment_. This wasn't _revenge_.

This wasn't Merla - it was someone else entirely.

I prayed that I was right, and fired a Shadow Ball straight at Merla. If I was wrong, I would beg for forgiveness later - but not when she was attacking me with the Ahriman's name.

Merla's eyes widened as she barely dodged my shot. "Glacia-"

I didn't stop though, and as she dodged, I intercepted her with a bite. "Merla doesn't talk, doesn't act like that! Who are you, _really?!_ "

Then the illusion broke, and 'Merla' disappeared.

In her place, another Inverted Pokémon appeared. Its torso was a deathly pale shade of white and was in the shape of an hourglass, with a cloak billowing behind it. It had a cyan growth around its neck, looking oddly like teeth. On its head was a billowing black plume, Miasma flowing freely from it.

It looked at me with blood-red eyes.

"Ah… he figured you would detect the illusion." The monster snapped its fingers, and I felt my limbs lock into place. "No matter - there is nothing you can do now."

I fell over, my legs not obeying my commands. "What-"

"What did I do to you?" The monster snapped its fingers again, and in an instant, I felt my mouth snap shut, my teeth slamming into each other. "This is a simple Disable - though, given my status as a Mythical, it is much stronger than the average move-canceler."

My eyes widened. Mythical? That title was usually reserved for Pokémon like Celebi and Mew - they were that powerful.

Then I realized as my eyes widened.

The monster chuckled. "Oh, you've realized, haven't you?" He bowed. "Darkrai, at your service."

I struggled hard, futilely, against the Disable. It was all for naught, though - the Disable was more powerful than anything I had ever come up against.

Darkrai floated around my form. "Decisions, decisions… the Lord has allowed me freedom with what I do with you, as long as it doesn't interfere with his plans." He lifted a hand, and my body lifted with it. " _I_ want to see his victory up close. And since you are now powerless… why don't you come and watch with me?"

Darkrai's lord? What is he talking about? From what Naetle and Uxie told me, Darkrai did everything of his own accord, not because he had some 'lord' he followed.

With my mouth shut, though, I couldn't ask any questions, let alone call for help - not that I knew where my team was. All I could hope was that they would wake me up in time and save me from Darkrai.

"They're not going to, Glacia," Darkrai idly commented, and my eyes snapped to him in shock. "We already have plans for your body. The Lord has chosen to enter your body once again. You cannot return while he still resides in it."

…

…

…

The Lord is the Ahriman, isn't he?

"Exactly."

And Darkrai could read my thoughts. There went any idea of a plan.

"I'm glad you're realizing the futility of the situation, Glacia." A short, toxic laugh crackled its way out of Darkrai's throat. "It'll make my job, once this battle is complete, all too easy."

Battle?

But before Darkrai could answer my mental question once again, another voice - a female - interrupted. "Darkrai, now is not the time to play. The Lord will require us soon enough, once his task is complete."

Darkrai turned to face the new Pokémon, not bothering to turn me in the process. "Has he sent you any orders yet?"

"Yes, Darkrai," the new voice responded. "Now that I've opened the way from the World Abyss, they can continue onward and meet with Giratina. Until then, I must take care of the Lord's body."

Darkrai yawned. "So, we're just going to stand here and wait for him to find Giratina? Nothing else?"

"It appears that way," the voice answered. "Measure your patience - the Lord requires of it."

"Go ask him if we can watch," Darkrai replied instead. "We can hide our presence so that his plan doesn't get messed up. I just want to see how it goes."

The voice sounded irked now. "We are _not_ going to mess up the Lord's plan for our entertainment, Darkrai. Cease this babble at once."

"You know what, I'll ask him." Darkrai went silent for a second before his vindictively smug voice rang out. "Oh, look at that. He said it was fine, Cresselia - so there."

Cresselia?!

"Oh, right, I haven't introduced her to you." Darkrai finally twisted my body. "Glacia, say hello to my old friend."

An Inverted Cresselia faced me, a frown firmly placed on her face. By her, a small blob of grey jelly floated, vacillating and undulating. Miasma swirled around her menacingly.

That monster even turned _Cresselia_?!

Cresselia floated up to me and slapped me across the face, face upturned into an ugly scowl. "Treat the Lord with respect!"

So she could read my mind as well. Just _wonderful_.

Just the, the blob made an odd turn, and a face was revealed - panicked, pleading face.

"Glacia!"

It was… Henka?

"Save me-" Then Henka's mouth clamped up.

Cresselia turned to him with a cold glare. "Shut up. I can't possibly understand why the Lord ordered you to remain alive, but I will keep you alive regardless - so stop tempting me."

Cresselia squeezed Henka's blobby body, making him cry out in pain, before turning back to Darkrai, a frown still plastered on her face. "Nonetheless, Darkrai - what you are planning is foolhardy and reckless. Even if the Lord has allowed it, I must tell you that-"

"Look, Cresselia," Darkrai interrupted. "If you think I'm going to mess up, then try and stop me from leaving." He barked out a laugh. "Oh, right. You _can't_."

Cresselia's eyes narrowed. Then she sighed. "You're right. I suppose I'll follow after you, to make sure you don't do anything to jeopardize his plan." She gestured to me. "Knock her out, would you?"

Darkrai rolled his eyes. "Ugh. Fine." A shadowy ball appeared in Darkrai's hands before he slammed it into me. "Goodnight, Glacia. See you soon."

* * *

I woke up groggily, my head pounding and my body weak and tired. I tried to get up, to figure out what exactly happened when I was out of it.

Then I realized I couldn't move my limbs, and remembered everything that happened - and figured out some other things too.

The nightmares we've been having for the last week or two - it was Darkrai's doing (or Cresselia's, I don't know if their Inverted Powers work that way). That feeling that Koga and I had of someone watching over our backs - that was them, too.

That does raise the question of how they were able to follow us through the World Abyss undetected, though.

"Darkrai," Cresselia muttered, her voice low. "She's awake."

"I'm _aware_ of that, Cresselia." Then I found my body turning and twisting in place, before looking over a small plain. "Let her see the show - it'll be entertaining to see her reactions."

"We both know that you're too lazy to reapply the Dark Void, Darkrai." Cresselia rolled her eyes. "Keep an eye on her - make sure she doesn't try anything."

"Fine."

Locked in place, there was nothing for me to do but think, think, _think_. What could I do in this situation? What options do I have?

"Nothing," Cresselia casually dropped on me. "We've thought of everything, and ran it by the Lord just in case. There's nothing you can do to save yourself."

You know, it would be a _lot_ easier to think if you would stop butting in every time I had a coherent thought, you know!

Darkrai snickered.

You know what, Darkrai? Why are you even going through all of this trouble? Are you guys going to ambush us and take the Time Gear?

Darkrai's snickering grew even louder as Cresselia smiled. "The Lord's ruse worked more effectively than I thought, then."

Ruse?

"Did you honestly think we were after the Time Gear, Glacia?" Cresselia snorted. "They're bastions of Dialga's power. All they do is stabilize time in a certain area - nothing more, nothing less. They have as much worth as any other piece of metal to us, Glacia. They only have worth to Dialga and the rest of the Creation Trio."

Then - but then - no, Uxie was insistent! We had to take them to protect them from the Ahriman - from you!

Darkrai's snickers grew wilder. "Oh, yeah, Uxie's 'final plea'. That was some of his more brilliant acting, you know."

Acting…?

Cresselia sighed. "I'm tired of her learning everything piecemeal, Darkrai. I'll just tell her everything right off the bat, instead of having her figure it out."

"Oh, you're no fun, Cresselia."

"Moving on." Cresselia faced me. "The Lord learned that you wished to find Uxie, to return to Naixe, and decided to lay a trap henceforth. We and the Lord ambushed Uxie in his sleep and Inverted him over the next few days. By the time you arrived at Fogbound Lake, he had already fallen completely under the Lord's control."

Then… then…

"The 'Uxie' you met in the Lake was just another projection created by the real Uxie, under the Lord's command - and since the projection was a simple clone created by the original, it could answer all of your questions with perfect accuracy. Then all he had to do was delay and redirect you until you got around to the subject of the Lord."

I wanted to bang my head _so_ much and awake from this nightmare.

"A few 'passionate' words later and you were convinced you had to take the Time Gear to Giratina. Then you escaped, and the real Uxie implanted the directions to the World Abyss into the Metagross."

… but… why…?

Cresselia snorted. "You can figure out the rest yourself, Glacia. Don't bother us - or at the very least, me - anymore."

Why would they do all this? Darkrai and Cresselia were the lords of dreams - they could come into this world more easily than I can! Heck, any Pokémon with sleep-related powers would be more useful than I am.

Why would the Ahriman go through such a convoluted method just to get to the dream world?

…

…

…

… unless… that wasn't the only objective.

Getting us to this world wasn't the only thing they wanted - that much was somewhat clear.

The Ahriman _already_ had access to this world - he could enter it whenever he wanted through Darkrai and Cresselia's powers and had access to everything inside it. We couldn't offer the Ahriman any more power than it already had. Why did he want to use us?

What did the Ahriman _want_ right now?

"Guys, how much longer until we get to Giratina?," I then heard a familiar voice ask, out of the blue, snapping me out of my musings. I then saw four figures walking across the dream world, entering the plain that Darkrai, Cresselia, and I were watching.

A Greninja, a Vanillish, an Inverted Metagross…

… and me.

I watched with a sort of horrid fascination as my body moved by itself and talked to the rest of my team.

Koga sighed. "I don't know, Glacia," he admitted. "I assume this was the dream world you were talking about. Maybe Necrozma could show us the way to Giratina - they both live here, don't they?"

My body shook its head. "Whenever I appear in the dream world, it's always near Necrozma's den. After that, I would Shadow Ball downward and meet him underground."

My body sighed. "And even if I _could_ meet with Necrozma, I don't it's the smartest idea. Necrozma and I… we're not on the best of terms."

How… how much does the Ahriman know about me?

"I… see." Koga looked rather unsatisfied. "So we're just going to wander around until we find Giratina, then?"

My body shrugged. "I guess."

My team and my body kept walking through the plain, with the three of us trailing behind at a distance where we wouldn't be seen. My stomach roiled in worry.

Right now, I was powerless. My body wouldn't obey me, I couldn't use any moves, my thoughts were open books to the Lunar Duo - and by proxy, the Ahriman - and the aforementioned monster was successfully fooling my team into doing… something.

As everyone walked through the plain (Darkrai occasionally complained to Cresselia, who clamped down on his mouth hard), I felt the Miasma inside me grow stronger and stronger, and my despair grew thick and heavy around me.

Then I heard a roar. A large, powerful roar. I saw him - the Renegade himself - leap out of the Distortion World, wings abroad.

Up until that point, the largest pokémon I had ever seen was the fake Groudon, which stood ten times larger than me.

Giratina was at least _twenty_ times larger than I was, and his large wings towered over the entire field. Wispy spirits groveled at his feet, though he didn't pay much attention to them, as his eyes were firmly fixed on my team.

My body - the Ahriman in control - took the Time Gear from Pillar, bowing. "H-Hello, Lord Giratina," he muttered 'respectfully'. "Uxie told us to bring the Time Gear to you, to keep it protected from the Ahriman and the Miasma."

Giratina took the Time Gear in hand. "You have helped us incredibly, Glacia. With this, Dialga will be able to fix the frozen time at Fogbound Lake," he responded. "However, is this the only reason why you came here?" He seemed to be waiting for an answer.

Gel stepped forward, eyes flashing. "Take us to Naixe, Gira-" My body poked him in the stomach. "Lord Giratina."

Giratina was silent for a few seconds, before nodding. "Necrozma has told me you wish to delay the Ahriman, to allow Tom the proper time to grow into a proper threat to him, correct?"

As my body nodded, Darkrai started snickering and chuckling to himself again. Cresselia tried to shush him - though she too had a sardonic smile on his face.

They didn't take Tom seriously, then.

"Very well, then." Giratina opened an inky portal next to him, with an image of Castle Rock behind it. "This will take you to where you first appeared, Glacia. You must find your way from there."

My team nodded, though Gel did it somewhat impatiently.

Giratina formed another portal - this one going back to the Distortion World. "Stay strong of heart, young ones. You are our future."

As they started walking to their respective portal, the sense of unease in my stomach grew - compounded only by Darkrai's and Cresselia's complete focus on my team and Giratina. They were expecting something to happen - but what?

Then I saw the Time Gear again - and for a split second, it flashed a dark red and orange.

Inverted.

Everything seemed to stop in place as so many things started to make sense to me.

The Miasma could be stored in objects - Pillar told me the bars of his cell were infused with Miasma. The Ahriman stored Miasma _into_ the Time Gear - that's why it was Inverted!

The whole point of this charade was to deliver the Miasma-infused Time Gear to Giratina since it looked like the Ahriman was ready to leave with the rest of my team.

And there were too many ways something like that could go wrong - even if the Time Gear wasn't useful to the Ahriman, it was _definitely_ useful to Giratina and Dialga. And the Ahriman was ready to exploit that to his benefit.

The Time Gear was a trap the whole time.

I pushed hard against the Disable, trying to free myself, to move even a single muscle. But there was nothing I could do - I was completely trapped, powerless… alone. My team… my friends… they thought I was walking next to them. Giratina didn't suspect a thing.

The Ahriman was about to win, while all I could do was stand here and watch.

…

…

…

No… I remembered the last time something like this happened. It was when I was captured by Night… when she was about to Invert Sky. I was Imprisoned and could do nothing at all, except plead on deaf ears.

Except I _did_ something - and it was something I could do again.

Ahriman.

Ahriman.

Ahriman.

Miasma swirled thickly around me, Darkrai and Cresselia unable to notice because of their fixation on the scene to make sure it went as expected. Too bad they were focusing in the wrong direction.

Ahriman. Ahriman. Ahriman.

My body frowned, turning in our direction - and the Lunar duo took notice. Time to speed this up.

AhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhrimanAhriman.

What I was doing was _working_. A veritable storm of Miasma flowed around me, almost obstructing my vision.

"Glacia, what are you doing?!" Darkrai hissed, with a Dark Void in hand. "Stop that!"

I ignored him, continuing to chant Ahriman's name in my head undaunted.

Darkrai threw his Dark Void at me - but it was immediately batted away by the Miasma, which overpowered it before it reached my body. The two lobbed attacks at me, trying to pierce the unholy shield I created. The Miasma absorbed the attacks easily, strengthening itself in the process.

Everyone in the plain was looking at me in shock or anger - including my team and Giratina.

The Ahriman, in my body, looked at me with hard, harsh eyes, dispersing the Miasma. But it was too late - everyone had already seen the Miasma - the deed was already done. I heard a familiar roar and scream.

"YOU!" That was Necrozma's voice - he must have finally arrived.

Then Darkrai slammed the back of my head into the ground, and I passed out again.

* * *

Luckily I wasn't out for too long - around a minute or two, actually.

I slowly and painfully got up, head pounding, as carnage raged around me. After ten pained seconds, I fully stood up - then realized that I could stand up. I was in my body again - the Ahriman must have left me at some point.

And for good reason, too - there was a battle of legends, literally. On our side were Giratina and Necrozma, both of them firing balls of shadowy power and psychic energy respectively. They were fighting against Darkrai, Uxie (who had appeared at some point when I was unconscious) and Cresselia - and while Darkrai was matching Giratina blow for blow, Uxie was nowhere _near_ as strong as Necrozma was. Cresselia was helping him out… but not really.

She wasn't as strong as I thought she would be - which was rather good.

As for the Ahriman… my team was facing him (not me - I could barely get up. I don't think I'd even be able to walk like this).

My friends were using the same strategy as always - Pillar would get up close and keep the enemy's attention away from Koga and Gel, the main damage dealers. If the opponent was too fast or used moves to weaken and debilitate us, they would move to purely long-range moves instead, and we would trap them in place.

The problem was that while the strategy worked against most Pokémon, it didn't work against a Ditto that could shapeshift at will. If Pillar came up close, the Ahriman would turn into a Machamp or Lucario or other close-range Pokémon and beat him to a pulp. If we tried to out-range him, the Ahriman would switch to a teleporting Pokémon, like Alakazam or Gardevoir.

There was no way we could outrange him at that point.

Pillar was the first to go down when the Ahriman teleported on top of him and transformed into a Garchomp. Pillar tried to buck him off as fast as he could, but the Ahriman held on, digging into Pillar's metal flesh like butter

Then the Ahriman ripped Pillar's arms off.

One by one, the Ahriman slashed sharp blades at the junctions between Pillar's arms and the main body. One by one, they fell to the ground and disconnected. One by one, Each arm twitched for a second, before going limp.

All we could do was stand and stare.

Pillar was… his brains were in his arms… no…

The Ahriman looked irritated. "Playtime is over - and this time, there aren't going to be any resurrections."

Four souls started floating out of Pillar's four arms. They tried to run, tried to flee as fast as possible.

Then the Ahriman turned into a Chandelure and lit his flame.

Koga snapped out of his trance, jumping toward the Ahriman with an unholy roar. But it was too late - in the shine of his ghostly flame, the four souls burned to nothing.

Pillar was gone.

Then the Ahriman turned into an Electivire and grabbed Koga mid-attack. With a blinding discharge, Koga was electrocuted to a crisp.

Then the Ahriman turned into a Honedge and cut off Koga's head.

Gel and I looked on in horror as Koga's head slowly slipped off his neck, as his body collapsed, dead, to the ground.

"So… who's next?"

Then next thing I knew, Gel was running - running far, _far_ away, nearly tripping over himself. I watched him as he ran as far away from the plain as possible, not caring about what happened to me or anyone else on the battlefield.

The Ahriman sighed, a tired look appearing on his face. "I _hate_ these fast, boring executions. There's no _fun_ in them - not like that Larvesta execution a few weeks back. Guillotines have that nice anticipation to them - just lopping someone's head off doesn't really have that… that _suspense_!" He turned into a Jolteon. "Wait here, would you?"

Within seconds, the Ahriman had fully caught up to Gel and slammed him to the ground, before whispering something into his ear - something I couldn't hear from where I was standing, unable to move from the pain.

Then, strangely, Gel started glowing, and the Ahriman stepped back, a clear look of shock on his face.

With a pop, Gel disappeared from existence, a small golden ring appearing in its place before it too winked out of existence.

What… what the…

The Ahriman and I stood still for a couple of seconds, not understanding the situation. Then the Ahriman began to laugh, and he laughed and he laughed and he laughed, before turning back to me.

"I should have expected that, really," the Ahriman admitted. "Yet another Pokémon to add to the list of potential tools. I should deal with them soon. But first, Glacia, I have to deal with _you_."

I tried to attack, to run, to gather energy for a Shadow Ball - anything. But just as before, my body wouldn't obey me - only instead of Darkrai's Disable, it was simple and pure exhaustion.

All I could do, _again_ , was wait for what was going to happen.

My death.

As the Ahriman continued walking toward me, he talked. "You know, Glacia, when the Miasma I placed in you after I left disappeared, I couldn't help but wonder what happened? What destroyed all of my Miasma?"

The Ahriman grimaced.

"It took some thinking and deliberation, but I eventually figured that Tom's last stand - the explosion of light - must have attacked, must have burned the rest of the Miasma away. He and I are cut from the same cloth, after all - it figures his influence would counteract my own."

My mouth was dry. "Wh-what?"

"None of your business, Glacia," the Ahriman said, simply just enjoying the sound of his voice. "All you need to know is that you helped me once again. And your body _was_ useful in getting the Time Gear to Giratina - look."

I gulped and turned around to see a horrifying sight.

Giratina had _lost_.

The Time Gear was acting like a parasite, attaching itself to Giratina and continuously pumping Miasma into him. Giratina was screeching, trying desperately to scrabble the infected Time Gear off of him, to no avail. Darkrai kept on pumping more Miasma into Giratina as well.

Slowly, ever so slowly… Giratina was turning Inverted.

I had to stop it, had to move…

Then the Ahriman grabbed me.

"For all of your attempted interference, you've done me no harm," he whispered into my ear. "I still have Giratina under my control, and you couldn't stop that - though, I must applaud your efforts."

Then it happened.

With a burst of darkness, the Miasma congealed and coagulated, before inserting itself deep into Giratina. Giratina's body cracked and screamed… then fell silent.

When the Miasma dissipated, red and gold turned to cyan and blue, grey turned to black and black turned to white.

"Darkrai, knock him out, would you?" The Ahriman asked - and Darkrai, facing a helpless Giratina, obliged. "It'll take a bit more time for the Miasma to taint his soul, for him to fall. But there's no stopping it now - he'll be my servant soon enough. Take him away, Darkrai."

The next thing I knew, Darkrai and Giratina had disappeared - and a second later, Darkrai returned. Giratina was nowhere to be seen.

Then there was a bright flash of light behind us, and the Ahriman sighed, a ticked look appearing on his face.

"Even with your interference, it _was_ going too well." I turned to see Necrozma gone, nowhere to be seen. "He's escaped - probably realized he was outmatched. Let's see how far he can run - and how little it will mean in the long run."

"Lord Ahriman," Cresselia floated up to us, injured but mostly functional, Uxie and Darkrai not too far behind. "What would you like me to do?"

"For now, you three are dismissed. I will take care of Glacia now - you have shown your inadequacies in that regard, Darkrai." Darkrai turned away in shame as Cresselia and Uxie looked at him disapprovingly. Then the three of them shimmered, as though they were a mirage, before disappearing completely.

The Ahriman looked at me again. "Now, Glacia, I think I'll have some _fun_ with you."

I opened my mouth - to scream, to plead, to cry, I don't know.

But before I could do anything, I felt something strange… like a hand tugging me away.

Then the Ahriman grimaced. " _Again_?" He asked me - though I couldn't answer him, in any capacity. He dropped me, before turning into a strange bipedal, hairless (except for his head) creature - one that I couldn't quite put to a name, but looked familiar in some way I couldn't quite recognize, but knew in my bones wasn't a Pokémon.

The Ahriman put his hands to his temples. "I suppose I'll get my stress relief in some other way - killing you now wouldn't be very fun, not when it's taking you away.." He then waved. "Until later, then, Princess Glacia. And remember - I'm _always_ watching you."

Then, in a flash of light, I disappeared.


	23. 23 - A Complex Problem, Pt 1

(Tom, The Following Day)

We couldn't enter any villages or settlements anymore - with Lotus in our company, we were immediately rebuffed - and that's if they didn't immediately send a search-and-retrieve (and kill) party after us.

After we barely escaped the first few, we needed a new way to look for Lotus's mom. Lotus suggested that we leave her behind and go look for her mother ourselves (with a rather forlorn look on her face at that), but Merla and I vetoed that since we didn't know enough about her mother to search for her on our own.

That, and it just felt wrong for Lotus to be forbidden from looking for her mom. It's her _mom_!

With that in mind, we couldn't ask around for other people's help - though, we found it difficult regardless. Word spread from Rosalia that we were supporters of Inverted Pokémon, so even when we _didn't_ have Lotus with us (such as when she was off hunting in the plains or forest), we were still chased down.

The longer this went on, the more and more frenetic Lotus became. She began losing sleep and had nightmares every few days. I would then have to calm her down - and I couldn't even wake Merla up for it since all she would do is make it worse.

She did her best to stay positive and calm - I could constantly see her biting her tongue with tears in her eyes now and again. But when it happened...

"I'm sorry!" Lotus would constantly bow down and wail, sniffling loudly. "It's - it's my fault you're having to go through all of this trouble and-"

"Lotus-"

"And you probably had bigger, more important things to do, and my problems must mean nothing to you, and-"

"Lotus, please-"

"AND I'M SORRY!" She kept on sobbing and sobbing.

It would take hours and hours to calm her down, and she appeared near-inconsolable at times. Every day, she looked more and more depressed, and heavy bags started forming under her eyes.

She would attempt to make up for her accidental and uncontrollable sabotage by working herself to near-death by making the rest of our search easier, but when it came to actual reconnaissance, she would eventually fall into despair.

Then, one night, Merla came to me in private.

"Enough is enough, Tom." Her eyes flashed. "Lotus isn't strong enough to find her mother - we can't take her along. We have to stop."

My mouth fell open. "Lotus, you want to stop her from finding her mother?!"

"She's too worried to stay calm - she has to stay far away enough from our search so she doesn't accidentally interfere." Merla sighed. "And, Tom… we might just have to cut our losses with Lotus and go elsewhere. I don't want to waste our time any more than we already have."

"Merla, Lotus _needs_ us," I protested. "I know it's taking a long time, but please, for Lotus, be patient!"

Merla's face remained stone-cold.

"Then let's take this seriously, Tom. Lotus is too loud and uncontrollable for us to search effectively. She can't come with us and look around anymore - got it?"

"Merla, I-"

"No means no, Tom," Merla reaffirmed. "I'm going to try to help find Lotus's mom for a little while longer. I think we can afford a little more time to help her, but it can't take too long. We've already been looking for a month and we've found next to nothing. All I know is that I won't stand for another attempt to be ruined by Lotus's frenzies."

"Merla, please! Be reasonable!" I tried to argue. "We don't even know where Glacia _is_ right now, other than the fact that she's with Night! What other things can we do right now?!"

Merla created a tiny portal to the Distortion World next to her (she figured it out a week or so in her new body).

"Tom, I'm not the boss here - you are. But if we don't make any headway, if we're forced to continue wasting our time to take care of Lotus, then I'll quit and go after Glacia myself. Even if I have to go against Night all by myself."

"Merla, just... wait…"

I would have said more, except something in Merla's eyes told me she wouldn't budge. Oh, she liked me well enough, and we were friends. She was usually willing to listen to what I had to say. But pit me against her desire to go save Glacia, and…

"I'll talk to her when we get back," I muttered, defeated.

Merla snorted. "Good. I'll go back to the camp and watch how it goes. Try to be gentle, would you?"

That was probably the other reason Merla wanted me to do it. Merla was nice enough but was way too brusque to break the news gently, especially to someone that frets as much as Lotus did nowadays.

I sighed, then turned into a Skarmory. "I'll meet you at the camp."

Merla disappeared into the Distortion World and left me alone where we were standing. With nothing else to do, I flew back to the camp.

Lotus had been collecting berries and other fruits for our dinner while we had been talking. When I returned, she was cooking them with her burning breath. When she heard me flap into the campsite, she looked elated.

"Tom!" She immediately stopped her cooking and ran up to me. "I - I've made dinner. I hope you like-"

"Lotus, we have to talk," I interrupted.

The raw fear in her eyes sent shivers down my spine.

"What… what's wrong?" She whispered, shrinking back slightly. Off in the shadow of a tree behind her, Merla stood, looking at me with a solemn face and nodding.

I sighed. "Lotus, you… I don't know how to say this, but… well, you don't seem to be getting that much sleep lately, that's all."

That was true enough - she had thick bags underneath her eyes, and her eyes were unfocused sometimes.

"It's alright," she was quick to assure me, a plastic smile on her face. "I'll be alright. Let's just find Mom as soon as possible and I'll become as sunny as a Sunny Day!" She laughed awkwardly.

I winced.

"I'll - I'll be alright, Tom. I'll get some good sleep tonight." She promised, only to be met with my stoic face.

"You'll get some good sleep tonight, sure, but what about tomorrow? What about a week from now? Can you keep positivity for that long, Lotus?"

Her plastic smile melted away within seconds.

"I'm worried about you, Lotus. Having nightmares this often isn't good - is there anything I can do to help?"

"I - there's no need to be worried about me, Tom," she restated. "Once we find Mom, everything - everything will go back to normal."

Something deep within my soul told me that she truly felt otherwise.

She had hope, sure… but she was losing it with every nightmare and every tear.

" _Tom, it's time you tell her what you and Merla agreed on,_ " Shade gently reminded me.

But… but…

Lotus's eyes were pleading.

 _Just… just please tell me the truth, Lotus_.

Lotus recoiled, as if not wanting to face me. Then her mouth, almost out of its own accord, opened. "I… it's gotten harder on me, recently. Ever since my mother was kidnapped, it's been hard… no, it's not just my mother. It's… it's a voice, deep in my head."

Merla's eyes widened, and she sat up straight to listen. I began paying my full attention to Lotus.

"Ever since I was little… maybe when I was a kid… I had this little voice whispering in the back of my ear, from my heart. It always gave me hope, gave me the strength to continue. It allowed me to wait through starving days on the mountain, lonely days when Mom was hunting… and when HUMANITY took Mom, it comforted me."

Tears started flowing out of her face. "And now… and now it's gone, and your voice is the only thing keeping me going."

My heart ached.

She turned to me, pleading. "I… I know I've been hard on you and Merla, and I know that when I… when I mess up, I mess up badly, but _please_! Please, don't…. Don't leave me…"

…

…

…

" _Tom? Tom?!_ "

I can't, Shade, I just can't. Lotus is… there's probably some Miasma in her or something. We can't just leave her alone with it - we have to keep her going!

" _Tom… you need to be responsible about this. Lotus can't help us - she can't control herself, and the Miasma is a danger to you. You need to get stronger, too - Time isn't on our side if you want to beat the Ahriman._ "

Stop trying to rush me, Shade! I can handle it!

" _Tom, I'm saying that you have to be rational about this. You've done enough to try and help Lotus already. You don't have to let Lotus sabotage herself - and us - as well._

" _..._ "

"Merla… come out from back there," I called behind Lotus.

Merla revealed herself, looking as serious as ever.

"Tom, we can't-"

"One day," I interrupted.

Merla raised an eyebrow.

"Give me one day to find progress on where Lotus's mom, Nyx, and HUMANITY are. Merla, you and Lotus stay back tomorrow. If I don't find anything, you can go back to searching for Glacia on your own."

"..."

She sighed.

"Fine."

Lotus was looking back and forth. "You were… listening to us, Merla?"

"That's not important, Lotus," Merla dismissed. "Alright, Tom. I'll give you tomorrow. If by tomorrow night you have nothing, I'll be gone by sunrise." She opened her wings. "Goodnight."

Merla flapped away.

"Tom, I - what's going on?"

"Lotus, I'm sorry… but things aren't moving quickly enough, and something had to change," I tried to explain. "Just… just trust me. Stay with Merla for tomorrow - I'll handle the investigation."

"I - I... okay." Lotus slowly nodded. "I-if I've caused you any trouble, just-"

"Lotus, please. Stop." I offered a weak smile. "Just… hold on to your hope, if nothing else."

Lotus just looked at me with misery growing on her face. Then she took some of the berries she cooked and went away to eat.

" _... are you proud of yourself, Tom?_ "

No… all I feel is weak, Shade… why did it have to turn out like this?

" _What are you talking about, Tom? You chose this path._ "

No, I didn't. All I wanted… all I wanted…

" _What_ did _you want, Tom?_ "

I… I don't know, Shade. I'm just… I'm lost. Everyone is angry at me, or they need my help, and I-

" _I don't think that anyone is angry-_ "

Oh, _shut it_! I don't _want_ your commentary, Shade!

…

…

…

Shade fell silent.

At that point, I just sat down.

What… what am I going to do?

* * *

I wandered the streets of Vismiana City, sticking to the shadows while I listened in on conversations - though I could only pay attention to a fraction of them due to a large headache.

Lunch came and went - though, as usual, I didn't eat anything. All that happened was that more people came and went. Good for collecting shadows and forms to use… awful for anything else.

Shade wasn't talking anymore, and I found myself missing his conversation somewhat. Oh, sure, he always went on about my 'mission to save the world from the Ahriman', and the 'power I held within me', but it was surprisingly lonely without him.

At some point, I just sat somewhere and started thinking. Thinking about how awful the situation is… how lost I was… how I can't find my way through all these problems...

And finally… what did I want, out of all of these trials and tribulations?

I wanted Lotus to be more like when we first met her - calm, kind, polite… not the fractured soul she was now. I want Merla to remain… I want Glacia to come back…

But… but those are just… they're just small things. They're problems that can be solved.

What… what is my goal?

Glacia… after she wants to return to her time, she wants to become a queen or a historian or something. Merla… she just wants to help Glacia do whatever she wants.

Naetle wants to go back to his own time and beat Darkrai, some weird Mythical Pokémon.

Everyone… everyone has _something_ they want to do with their life. I - I just wanted everyone else to be happy… but I can't do that.

I - I followed Glacia because… because she looked lost and alone. I stayed because I made a promise to help her… and because I was her friend.

But now, I can't help Lotus - I can't help Merla - I can't find whatever power I need to stop the Ahriman… I'm just…

… I'm just weak… hopeless… alone.

…

…

Shade? Are you there?

…

…

He didn't reply.

"You're in the way."

I turned to see a Druddigon looking at me, coughing, with some boxes with holes in them in his hand.

"Sorry," I muttered.

The Druddigon raised an eyebrow. "What's got _you_ in such a crummy mood?"

"It's - it's nothing," I evaded. "It's none of your business."

"You're standing in my way - it's my business," the Druddigon countered.

I moved out of his way, and he passed through.

But before he went far, he put the boxes down. "Alright, I can feel you burning your eyes into the back of my skull," he called.

I shrunk back as he turned to face me. "Kid, what's your name?"

I said nothing.

"Okay, if you're going to be like that, I'll call you… 'Flob'. Is that alright, 'Flob'?"

"... sure, why not?" It's hardly the worst thing that's happened to me today.

"'Flob', I've been seeing your face in the wanted posters across the city - attacking random citizens and consorting with Inverted Pokémon." He slammed a fist into his palm. "I have half a mind to capture and turn you in right now."

I grit my teeth. "You can try," I challenged while falling into a fighting stance.

"Oh, I will try," the Druddigon promised. "But first - why were you sitting in the middle of the street?"

I froze. "... what?"

"You were standing in my way - it's my business," he repeated.

"... you want me to tell you what's bothering me, then you're going to capture me."

The Druddigon nodded. "I have some time, and you're friends with an Inverted Pokémon," he stated. "Sorry for the curiosity, Flob."

We stood stock-still for a couple of seconds before I fell out of my battle stance and let out an exasperated sigh.

"... sure. I've been having some… life troubles." I mentioned. "I'm lost and I need to know what I'm going to do next."

The Druddigon scoffed. "Oh, please, _nobody_ knows what they're going to do next. How are you any different?"

"I'm _ten_!" I argued (well, that's the number that comes to mind when I think of my age). "I should already have my direction in life chosen!"

"You're _ten_?" The Druddigon lowered his guard, as his mouth started gaping. "Are you - are you serious?!"

"... yeah?"

"You're a _kid_? What are you doing fighting off mobs and working with Inverted Pokémon?"

"... I don't get what you're talking about."

"You're not even at the prime of your life! You should be more concerned with - oh, I don't know, playing with your friends instead of evaluating your _life choices_!"

"But I-"

"What do you think a ten-year-old is supposed to do - heck, what do you think a nine-or-eight-year-old is supposed to do?!"

"I… uh…"

My immediate answer was 'Venturing', but that couldn't apply to everyone - and besides the other Venturers, I didn't know that many kids - heck, the only kid I knew in Naixe was Strawberry!

And she was mostly innocent from battle - I don't know what she did outside of captivity. Wasn't she playing or something when Henka captured her?

Then the Druddigon's eyes narrowed. "Are you - sorry, _were_ you a Venturer?"

I nodded. "Er, yeah."

"No wonder you've got your head stuck so far up your butt," the Druddigon sighed, shaking his head. "They get you guys early, don't they?"

"What are you talking about?"

"You wouldn't understand," the Druddigon waved me off, before falling into a battle stance. "I've wasted enough time talking to you for now."

The Druddigon slashed toward me with a Dragon Claw, which I dodged deftly, before countering with an Ice Punch in the face.

The Druddigon skidded backward as ice spread across his face, before lowering his guard again. "You know what, forget it. Just from that punch, I can already tell you're stronger than me."

He sat down. "I'd run, but something tells me you would catch up to me in no time. I won't resist if you want to kill me - just make it painless, would you?"

Wha ...What?!

"You - are you serious?!" I recoiled. "I'm not going to _kill_ you! I'm not a murderer!"

"But you hang around with an Inverted Pokémon - that Inverted Ice Vulpix in Rosalia Village," the Druddigon countered. "You work with the worst company imaginable. If you haven't ended a few lives here and there, I'll eat my wing."

I just gaped.

The Druddigon raised an eyebrow. "Okay, then." He brought a wing near his mouth.

"N-no! Stop!"

The Druddigon let go of his wing. "Fine, then. I wanted to see what I tasted like, too," he muttered.

"So… are you going to attack me, then?" I asked.

"No, there's no point. For a ten-year-old, you're stupidly strong," the Druddigon countered. "And you seem like an alright kid, even if you're messed up."

"'Messed up?!"

"You have no sense of what it's like to be a kid, or to even enjoy your life. Tell me, what was the last thing you did for fun?"

"For… fun?"

That sounded like an easy thing to answer - or at least it did until I tried to answer it.

"I… uh… like to... um…"

"Go on. Say it - what do you do when you have free time and nothing else to do?"

"I… train?"

"Do you enjoy training?"

"Um…"

"Don't try to kill yourself over an answer," the Druddigon waved his hand. "I'm not expecting you to remember. Becoming a Venturer is stressful, I imagine - having to deal with Mystery Dungeons and outlaws all the time. You don't get much chance to unwind in that career - not when you have the growth of civilization on your back."

If that was the only thing.

"If there's any genuine advice I can give you, it's to quit. It sounds to me like everything's finally taken its toll on you - the responsibility and the impossibility of someone like _you_ helping anyone."

I gritted my teeth. "Stop- stop talking! I - it's my job to help everyone be happy!"

"Just _stop_ , kid. Find a hobby, enjoy your life, stop worrying, do _something_!"

"I… stop it!"

It never stops, does it?! The accusations, ultimatums, the orders! Everyone wants a piece of me!

Even Lotus, as kind as she is, is just using me as some kind of emotional crutch or whatever!

"I - I don't have the option!" I argued. "Everyone is - everyone is counting on me! They won't be able to… to…"

"To what, kid?" The Druddigon snorted. "They can solve their problems - nobody is asking you to shoulder the world's burdens on yourself or anything like that." He snorted.

I didn't smile.

"Kid, you need to relax, enjoy your life. Find a way to be happy, cheer up - do you get the picture?"

"You don't know what you're talking about."

The Druddigon sighed. "Whatever - just keep what I said in mind. Don't kill yourself or anything - you're a good kid. Sometimes, you have to let other people solve their problems."

He picked up his boxes. "See you around, kid." He continued walking through the alleyway.

I sighed, before looking away. Whatever was 'wrong' with me had to wait. I forced myself into only having one day to make progress in finding Lotus's mother, and it was well into the afternoon. Spending an hour in the alleyway didn't help either.

"... _alley_... _Druddigon_?"

For the first time today, Shade's voice.

Alley? Why would he say that? It's not like there was anything in there - no doors or openings to any buildings. That's why I chose it - it wasn't remarkable enough to attention or anything like that.

…

…

…

Wait… there's nothing there. Why was the Druddigon there?

I walked back into the alley, going to where I sat. The Druddigon had already left, leaving nothing behind. There were no doors he could have exited from… could he have flown away?

I sighed. Why was I bothering, again? What the Druddigon did was none of my business - I had other things to worry about.

Now if only this headache of mine would go away.

"... _Druddigon… headache…_ "

Shade, if you're going to say something, don't say it in piecemeal, please.

"... _you can't trust the Druddigon, Tom_."

Strange, it sounded like he wanted me to be happy, Shade.

" _You don't have the time to be happy, Tom. Lotus, Glacia, the Ahriman… there are too many problems you have to deal with._ "

I _know_ , Shade! I just - I'm not sure anymore.

…

I don't want to solve this by myself, Shade. I want - I want help.

" _There's not much I can do, Tom. I've been too busy trying to awaken your power._ "

You keep going on and on about 'my power', Shade. What are talking about?

" _You have a strange and almost unique soul, Tom. To be precise, there's only one other 'person' with this kind of soul - the Ahriman._ "

The guy who controls the Miasma. So you're saying I can control the Miasma too?

" _That's what Dad thought at first, and he was prepared to destroy you over it._ "

Giratina wanted to _kill_ me?

" _Yeah - then he changed his mind when he realized what kind of weapon you could be._ "

'Weapon', huh.

" _In a 'you're the hero' sense, Tom. Not like an actual weapon._ "

Oh...sure.

I sighed. So I can control Miasma, then? Fat good it does me.

" _No, you can't control Miasma. Dad was able to figure that out after a while - but we realized you can control something_ like _it_."

I flexed my fingers.

What are you talking about, Shade?

" _As Dad was playing with your soul, some of its 'essence' fell to Naixe from the dream world. From the brief second he saw it, Dad could tell it was a lot like Miasma...except it was a lot different too._ "

What are you talking about?

" _It was a lot brighter and faster than the Miasma - it didn't hover or swirl, but_ shone _, if you could believe it._ "

… I don't get it.

" _Dad figured that it could be used to counteract the Miasma since it was a lot like it. As long as you become a good person, it wouldn't be a danger - and it might take the place of Miasma, so it couldn't get into Pokémon._ "

Like a vaccination?

" _What's a vaccination?_ "

It's - it's something you get injected into yourself that stops you from getting sick.

" _Ah - then… well, maybe?_ "

So I have some super-special 'Miasma vaccination' power? You're kidding, right?

" _Do you think we would be going through all of this trouble otherwise?_ "

I sat down.

Whatever power I had, it sounded like it wouldn't help me now.

" _You shouldn't have made that promise to Lotus, Tom._ "

But she needs my help, Shade.

" _So do so many other people. We've spent a month trying to help her, and we've made no headway. We've done nothing but waste time, while the Ahriman's power probably grows by the day. You have to shape up-_ "

Enough! Stop it - stop criticizing me!

Shade fell silent again, and I collapsed.

At the end of the day, the Druddigon was probably right. I'm… I'm not the kind of person who should have the weight of the world on his shoulder. I've had enough trouble helping Glacia return to her time and stopping Night. This… it's become too much now.

"Dad, what's that Pokémon?"

I turned to see a small Chikorita looking at me, her face bemused. Her father, a Meganium stood next to her, reading a map.

"Not now, Flower," he absently muttered. "Let me find the directions, okay?"

"Okay, dad." The Chikorita turned to me. "What's your name?"

"Um… Tom," I answered. "What's your name?"

"Flower," she answered. "What kind of Pokémon are you?"

So we're going back and forth, are we?

"I'm a… a 'Marshadow'," I answered. "There aren't that many of us."

"Oh, okay." Flower nodded. "Do you want to play a game?"

"Er…" I didn't have _time_ for a game… but then the Druddigon's words rang in my head. "Okay, sure, why not?"

"Let's play tag!" Flower immediately ordered, before touching me in the shoulder. "Tag, you're it!" She then started running away.

"Tag…?" I had somewhat faint memories of the experience - you were supposed to run after someone who wasn't 'it' and touch them, making them 'it'.

Flower was already halfway across the street when I realized that I should probably be moving. I started chasing after her, transforming into a Jolteon and speeding up to her quickly, before transforming back and tapping her back.

Flower spun around. "Wow - you're fast!"

I buffed my chest. "Yeah, well… I guess you can say tha-"

Before I knew it, she tapped me again and started running off. "No more tag-backs!"

I snorted, before running after her. "Come back here!"

I chased after her in the streets, for what had to be half an hour. Maybe one of two of the civilians recognized me, but since I blended into the ground soon afterward, they probably thought it was a mirage or something.

I didn't transform again, either - though, for what reason, I didn't know.

Soon, I had chased Flower to some loading docks, a far ways away from where we had started the game.

Flower took a second to stick out her tongue at me, and I took the opportunity to tap the top of her head. Flower immediately tried to tag me back, but I dodged.

"No tag backs, Flower!" I then leaped off of her and started running in the direction of one of the warehouses, Flower scurrying quickly behind me.

My mind whirred. Flower probably couldn't climb, so if I got to a high enough point, I would be near unreachable.

I found a large stack of holed-boxes and climbed on top of them with an Ambipom form. Within seconds, I was ten meters or so in the air, unreachable to Flower.

"Can't catch me now, can you?!" I crowed, expecting to hear Flower's sounds of dismay below.

Instead, all I heard was silence.

"You can't climb, can you?" I peered over the side of the boxes, wanting to see if she was _actually_ climbing.

Flower wasn't there.

"Flower?" This might be a trick, but… "Flower, are you there?"

Nothing responded.

I jumped down the boxes. "Flower, I'm right here. You can tag me now… Flower?"

I transformed into a Jolteon and started running around the docks, trying to find Flower's poignant scent. It took a good five minutes or so, but I eventually got a good whiff and bounded in the direction it came from.

"Flower, what happen…" I melted into the shadows of a nearby crate as a large figure loomed over me.

"Huh, I _swore_ I heard something, Drakis," a small voice boomed.

"Take a few minutes and look around the perimeter. We can't have anyone else coming in, can we?"

Was that the _Druddigon_?

"Let _go_ of me, you big scaly butt!"

Was that _Flower_?

A Turtonator stomped out and looked in the direction of the shadow I had melted into. "There's no one here, Drakis."

"Keep looking - they might be hiding. Use Smog, smoke any illusions out." It _was_ the Druddigon - and these are the boxes that he was carrying!

The Turtonator released a dark purple cloud of Smog, which floated above the shadow I melted into.

"There's still no one here, Drakis. I was probably imagining things."

"Keep looking - I'll take care of 'Flower' here," Drakis sneered. "Make sure they don't escape."

"Let _go_ of me!" Flower shouted again.

The Turtonator stomped away. I slowly, ever so slowly, transformed into a Joltik, before looking at the situation.

Drakis was holding Flower up by the leaf as she swung and flailed her stubby legs around.

"Let _go_ of me-" Drakis slammed Flower on the ground, as my eyes widened.

"Oh, _shut up_ , would you?!" he roared, causing Flower to glower in silence. "Better. Now, before I knock you out, was there anyone with you?"

"I'm not telling you anything!" Flower spit back at him. "And let _go_ of me-"

Drakis slammed Flower back on the ground. "I _told_ you to shut up!" Every word he said, he slammed Flower back on the ground.

At that point, I had enough. "Let her go!"

Drakis turned to me, as a note of fear entered his eyes. "Y-you…Flob?!"

"Tom?!"

That settled it. "You lied to me!" I roared, before charging at him with an Ice Punch. Before Drakis could react, I slammed it into his throat, causing him to drop Flower and for her to land on her butt.

"You _bastard_!" Drakis roared, before shooting a Flamethrower at me. It was pathetically slow, though, and I weaved through it, before uppercutting him with another Ice Punch.

At that, Drakis fell.

"T-Tom?" Flower turned to me, small tears in her eyes. "Tom, what just happened? What did you just do?!"

"Flower, who was that?" I instead asked, breathing a little heavily. "Who were those people?"

"I - I don't know!" She cried. "I just saw them moving around those boxes."

" _Tom, look at the contents of the box!_ " Shade, for the first time in an hour, shouted.

The box…?

I ripped open one of the boxes, and let the 'cargo' tumble out.

Bodies. A Cyndaquil, a Murkrow, a Gulpin, the list went on and on.

"Are they… alive?" Flower asked, worried.

I tapped one of their eyes, which scrunched up in pain. "I think they're just asleep or something," I said relieved. "But then… what were Drakis and the Turtonator doing with them? Why would you cart around Pokémon in boxes?"

We stared at them for a short while longer, before it hit me.

"They… they're Pokémon traffickers." A sense of revulsion hit me.

"Hey, who's there?!" A voice shouted, and Flower and I jumped.

"We- we have to run!" Then Flower took off, not even waiting for me to come with her.

"F-Flower, wait up!" I transformed into the form of a Jolteon so that I could follow her - but then I felt something grab my tail.

Drakis had gotten back up. "I'm… not going to let you go, Flob!"

I transformed back into a Marshadow, escaping his grasp, before slamming another Ice Punch into him, causing him to fall back into unconsciousness.

"Stay down," I ordered, before high-tailing it after Flower - but I was too late.

The Turtonator was back, and he held a limp Flower in his hand.

"Finally found the rat," he spat.

I jumped up and slammed another Ice Punch into the Turtonator's face, but was immediately batted away with a powerful snap of his arm.

The Turtonator threw a slow punch toward me, which I weaved away from… only to be faced with the Turtonator's glowing back.

 _BOOM!_

I was flung through several crates of boxes, feeling my tender back slam into each one. I shakily got to my feet, only to have a Dragon Pulse explode on top of me.

Shade! Now's a _really_ good time for that power you were talking about to show itself!

Shade didn't respond.

Then, hidden in the boxes, I felt the toxic presence of Miasma, and it made me gasp. It was the first time I had felt it in this body, and it nearly made me choke on myself. My fingers curled into fists as I desperately tried not to scream.

"What is going _on_ here?!" A voice roared, contempt and malice dripping from their words.

"Intruders," the Turtonator responded, shaking Flower's body. "Found someone new."

"Put her in a cell for now," the voice commanded. "Who else?"

"A weird Ghost Pokémon," the Turtonator answered. "The one in the posters."

"The one that's friends with the one Henka couldn't get?!"

Henka?!

"That one, yeah."

The other voice sounded panicked. "It can melt into shadows - stop it before it gets anywhere!"

At that point, I had heard enough and quickly fled the scene.

* * *

"Henka?!" Merla grabbed me, preventing me from moving. "Are you sure that's what he said?!"

"It's not just that - nobody knows who you are yet, Merla!" I immediately added. "'The one Henka couldn't get - that must be Lotus!"

I turned to Lotus and saw her shocked face… one that also had a bud of hope in it.

"Are you… do you think they have my mom with them?" She asked.

I nodded, before turning to Merla again. "Is that enough for you, Merla?"

Merla, though, had already opened a portal to the Distortion World. "Merla?"

"Get in, you two. You said it was the docks, right?"

"Does that mean…"

"Next time we have an investigation, I'm letting you handle it alone," Merla simply stated. "If this is what you get from a single day without us, then we're clearly holding you back."

"You're staying with us?!" Lotus's eyes were sparkling. "Thank you, Merla!"

"Don't thank me, Lotus - that's just a waste of time. Let's just go rescue your mother." Merla stepped into the portal.

After that, I was ready to go into the portal, but Lotus pulled me aside for a second, her eyes sparkling. "Tom, Tom, guess what happened earlier today!"

Before I could respond, she continued. "The voice - it came back!"

"Wh-what?!"

She quickly nodded. "Earlier today, I was just looking around the forest, for something to eat for lunch - and the voice that I told you about, the one that keeps me going - it came back!" All of this was said in a rush of enjoyment. I could see Lotus's excitement and eagerness return.

"You didn't have any… episodes today, did you?"

Lotus fervently shook her head. "None at all - the voice was here for me! It even apologized for leaving me alone for so long!"

Lotus looked happy - no, she looked positively ecstatic. I could tell that she was more pumped up and energized now than she had been for the entirety of our search. As a content smile curled itself across her face, I inwardly turned to Shade.

" _...it's been so long since I was in its presence… but I don't think there's any Miasma around Lotus_ …" Shade finally said.

And the fact that it _apologized_ …

… the Miasma was acting strangely around Lotus.

" _...yeah… no, it_ has _to be Miasma_ … _unless_ … " Shade was muttering to himself.

Shade?

" _It's nothing - look, Lotus has already gone on without you. Just catch up - I'll continue working_."

Before I stepped in as well, I paused.

Sorry, Shade. I… I said some awful things to you today, and I-

" _Now's not the time for that, Tom._ " Shade sounded brusque. " _Whatever you're doing, it's working._ "

What are you talking about?

" _That power I was talking about - I think I'm sensing it within you_. _Now that I think about it, something else awakened in you earlier today as well, right after our argument._ "

Oh… that.

" _I'll keep working on it - and if you getting angry at me means it activates, then all the better for it_."

I decided to leave Shade alone after that and jumped into the portal.

Merla had set up another portal inside the Distortion World by the time I had gotten there, and when I appeared, she immediately jumped in, followed by Lotus. I quickly jumped in after them, appearing in Vismiana.

From there, we appeared at the docks. There were several Pokémon milling about.

"Lead the way, Tom," Merla commanded, before hanging back. I nodded, before running forward, Merla and Lotus following me closely.

Weaving through the stacks of boxes, we arrived at the site where the Turtonator and I had battled. The box had been removed, but the scorch marks from the Turtonator's explosion remained.

"This is where it happened?" Merla asked, walking around the explosion site and looking at the various boxes. "And these have Pokémon in them?"

"That's what I remember," I nodded.

Merla tore open one of the boxes, and berries fell out.

What the…?

Merla's eyes, though, narrowed. "They've moved," she summarized. "Since you escaped, they've probably moved all of the boxes with the Pokémon in them." She sighed. "Any other ideas, Tom?"

"I don't know…" I answered, a little confused. "I was more insistent on rescuing Flower than anything."

"That's not very helpful," she groused. She turned to Lotus. "Any ideas?"

But Lotus wasn't paying attention to her - instead, she was growling at some figure in the distance.

"Lotus…?" I cautiously asked - but that seemed to set her off. She started bounding towards the figure in the distance.

"DIE! DIE! DIE!" She shouted, burning air flying free from her maw.

Merla and I exchanged a glance before running after her.

"Lotus, SLOW DOWN!" I shouted after her - but she didn't seem to listen, and continued running.

I transformed into a Ninjask and zipped after her, catching up within a second.

Then I felt the Miasma, and I felt that crawling feeling go up my skin.

An Inverted Plusle, Miasma flowing freely around him, was charging straight at Lotus, squeaking savagely.

"GRRAAAAAGGGGGHHHHH!" They leaped on top of Lotus and closed their stubby arms around Lotus's throat, trying to choke her. Lotus, though, was biting and tearing at the Inverted Plusle in return, trying to rip their arms off without hesitation.

Merla reacted in a flash, taking the Inverted Plusle in her arms and ripping him and Lotus apart, before throwing him away. The Plusle flipped to its feet - but before it and Lotus could charge at each other again, Merla took the rabid Lotus and flung her inside a portal, before going inside and closing it immediately.

The rage in the Plusle's eyes slowly fell away, only to be replaced with confusion. "What the…" Then his eyes narrowed as he looked at me, and gasped. "You're the intruder from earlier!"

The Plusle's fists were wreathed in black electricity. "I won't let you get away!"

" _Tom, I suggest you get out of there to figure out what you're going to do next… Tom?"_

I turned into a Joltik and jumped on top of the Plusle's punch, biting and draining as much electricity from it as I could. Of course, there was way too much for me to gorge on, and I couldn't even begin to hope of draining the Plusle of all of its energy.

That wasn't the point, though.

Once the Plusle saw me, he immediately thought of the obvious solution - to squish me flat while I was in this tiny state.

He had _obviously_ never dealt with a mosquito (though no one in this world had, to be fair). In a few seconds, I was wriggling all over him while he tried his best to swat me.

"Stay… still!" he grunted, trying basic traps to catch me - ones that I saw a mile coming. It was fun, doing this… but eventually, he would catch me, or help would come for him. I had to end this quickly.

I crawled to the Plusle's back and bit down on him while also shooting down some web where I was standing. Soon, the Plusle was writhing in pain as I drained more and more energy from him. Miasma swirled around menacingly, though it could do nothing in this instance.

The Plusle couldn't reach me as I drained more and more energy from it, and was starting to flag.

Then it had an oh-so bright idea.

"DIE!" The Plusle jumped so that he would land on his back and squash me.

There was a loud _SPLAT!_ , and the Plusle got up.

"I… got him?!" A wide grin stretched across his face, as he saw some sticky and gooey white fluid on the ground. "I got him!"

Hidden in the Plusle's shadow, I couldn't help but snicker. Web fluid - to an idiot that never killed a Joltik, it would be the closest thing to blood imaginable.

As the Plusle started walking inside a building, I smiled to myself. Infiltration successful.

" _Now_ you've _got a free ride inside, but what about Merla and Lotus?_ "

We'll figure that out later. Merla's smart, so once Lotus has calmed down, she'll help us out again.

The Plusle walked inside, humming a small tune to himself. "I did it, I did it, I did it…" he chanted under his breath.

Go on, report to your superiors…

As the Plusle walked through the building, I took a look at the facilities. Rows upon rows of cages and prison cells stood - except instead they weren't inmates. It was structured a lot like Night's prison was (before the Twisting into the Mystery Dungeon), but these Pokémon weren't enthralled like the inmates were.

Instead, there was a lot of crying kids and stone-faced adults.

The Plusle walked up to one of the cages and rattled the bars. "How's it going in there?" a devilish smirk grew on his face. "Having fun?"

The Shelgon inside said nothing, but stonily glared at the Plusle.

The Plusle reached inside the bars and, pulling the Shelgon's vulnerable face down to his level, electrocuted him.

As his bones were illuminated by the electricity coursing through his veins, the Shelgon grit his teeth and continued to say nothing.

"Meowth got your golden tongue?" The Plusle teased, before walking away. "Ahahahah… whatever. I've got more important things to do."

"What important things, Gappy?"

An Inverted Solrock and Inverted Braixen appeared, looking somewhat unimpressed with Gappy the Plusle.

"You've been gone from your post for twenty minutes - we've been forced by Mr. Rand to form a search party for you." The unsaid accusations were obvious.

"It's not without reason," Gappy explained. He formed a cocky smirk on his face. "Remember that intruder from earlier today? The one Mekug stopped from rescuing the Chikorita?"

The Braixen raised an eyebrow. "Yeah?"

"Well, he came back - and I killed him." Gappy buffed his chest.

"You?"

"Yeah, me." The Plusle sneered. "Mekug wasn't able to kill him, but _I_ could."

"Mekug wasn't even trying, Gappy." The Solrock snorted. "He probably wasn't all that strong."

"Anyway, _I'm_ going to report it to Mr. Rand, and he'll be so grateful, he'll give me a promotion."

"Not likely," the Braixen snorted.

"Get to the loading bay when you're done, Gappy," the Solrock ordered. "We still have some work to do."

With that, the two Inverted Pokémon went on their way.

Gappy continued walking through the holding facility. As he walked and I followed, I looked through the cages, trying to see where Lotus's mother (a normal Ice Ninetales) or Flower were. Gappy, though, didn't cross their paths.

He _did_ cross the paths of other Inverted Pokémon - and there were a _lot_ of them. Inverted Lucario, Inverted Diggersby, Inverted Pyroar - the list went on and on.

The whole facility was _drenched_ in Miasma as a result. Oh, sure, there were a few non-Inverted Pokémon here and there - though they look like they'd rather be anywhere else. No Inverted Pokémon were in the cages.

Eventually, we came to a large room, with heavy wooden doors. Pushing hard, Gappy pushed the doors open.

"Mr. Rand, I-"

"Shut up, Gappy."

Inside the room a Pangoro stood, standing next to an Octillery and Breloom, as well as an Inverted Audino. All of them were hunched over a bound Grovyle, who was glaring daggers at them.

"But sir, I-"

The Pangoro slowly turned to Gappy, and walked over to him, taking large, but quiet steps. Gappy quailed.

The Pangoro stepped up to Gappy and grabbed his whole body, jostling his shadow as a result. I took the chance to switch shadows, getting away from Gappy and stepping into the Pangoro's instead.

The Pangoro lifted Gappy by his neck. "Wait."

He then threw Gappy across the room, where he collapsed on the ground.

The Pangoro walked back across to where the other Pokémon were - and I followed him.

"Continue," he said simply.

The Inverted Audino nodded. "Right away, sir," she nodded deferentially, before shooting a Heal Pulse at the Grovyle.

The Grovyle tried to get up, but she stomped on his back, forcing him back to the ground. "Your turn, Octavian."

"Do you think I should try Gunk Shot?" The Octillery asked in response.

"It'll interfere with my healing, just keep using Signal Beam."

Octavian sighed. "Alright, then." He then charged the attack, before slamming it full force into the Grovyle's scarred back.

The Grovyle grit his teeth, and I could tell his eyes were going in and out of focus.

The Audino knelt to ear-level with the Grovyle. "Are you now ready to tell us what we-"

She didn't get to finish, because the Grovyle took the opportunity to spit at her feet.

She sighed. "A few more times, then." She stomped on his exposed back a few more times. "You know, this will go a lot easier if you just tell us where he is."

Grovyle coughed. "Wh-who?!"

"There you go again, playing dumb." She stomped on his back again. "We know you and Tom are working together."

" _...is she… they can't really…_ " Shade muttered in my head. I winced.

"Or is it just _chance_ you try to escape the moment he makes a diversion - that he just so _happens_ to lead his Chikorita friend to the dock?" The Breloom came forward and threw a large series of punches toward Grovyle's back again, causing him to wince in pain.

The Audino pulled up one of Grovyle's bound arms. On it was a brand in the shape of a fist. "Let me remind you that we _own_ you. We found you in the street and nursed you back to health."

"You left me to rot in a cell!" Grovyle gasped, angry.

"Semantics!" The Audino countered. "We sheltered you and gave you a future!"

That word - 'future'- incensed Grovyle further. He roared and tried to shake the Audino off, but she held on tight. Soon, he collapsed again, as Octavian's Signal Beam hit him again, exposing his scars again.

Then the Pangoro - Mr. Rand - finally spoke up again. "Your brand means you're mine. There's no escape. Try today, try tomorrow, try yesterday. All will end in failure."

The Pangoro lit up his fist with a Fire Punch and slammed it into Grovyle's back, grinding him into the ground.

Grovyle finally gave in and screamed. He screamed and screamed, and the shrieks echoed painfully around the room. I could tell he was trying to stop, but his body finally betrayed him.

It was only until Shade was shouting at me did I realize I was trying to jump out of Mr. Rand's shadow to save him

" _Tom_ , stop!"

Shade, he's going to _die_!

" _And you will too! You can't tell me you'd win four-on-one, would you?!_ "

…

" _When you find it, take your chance. Until now, stay tight_."

Grudgingly, I barely managed to keep myself from jumping out and clocking Mr. Rand's face in.

"Keep him alive," Mr. Rand commanded. The Audino nodded and got to work on healing Grovyle back up again. Then she whistled.

"Damn - he's _still_ conscious. What's this guy _made_ of?!" The Audino shook her head, "Never mind that - how did you two knock him out?!"

Octavian coughed. "We, uh, didn't. Once we saw Mr. Rand's brand in the middle of town, we went for a sneak attack. One quick Soak and a wide-reaching Spore, and he was out like a light." He turned to Mr. Rand. "Not so bad, right?"

Mr. Rand stopped paying attention, turning back to a starstruck Gappy.

"That… was amazing!" Gappy gushed, not bothered at all. "I - he just _burned_!"

Yeah, Gappy's getting a special hurt of his own.

Mr. Rand didn't smile. "You went missing. Why?"

The grin on Gappy's face only grew. "Oh, you're not going to believe this, boss - remember that Tom guy you were so worried about catching?"

Mr. Rand's eyes flashed. "What about him?"

"He's dead - I killed him!" Gappy sounded extraordinarily pleased at the pronouncement of my death. He was the only one in the room who was happy.

Mr. Rand's brow furrowed. "You? Kill _him_?" He sounded skeptical.

"Nonono, I _did_ kill him," Gappy insisted, waving his hands. "Look, I was doing my duty when I heard this _awful_ screech. I turned and saw that Inverted Vulpix - that girl whose mom Nyx and Henka took - barreling toward me, screeching like she wanted my head on a silver platter. Next thing I knew, I was doing the same thing - I couldn't even control myself, she _had_ to die!"

The Audino stopped healing. " _She's_ the X Variant?"

Gappy stopped in his rambling and turned to look at the Audino, confused. Mr. Rand did likewise.

"Explain," he demanded, with a curt look on his face.

The Audino looked rather confused. "Explain what?"

"What's an 'X Variant'?" Gappy asked.

The Audino sighed. "Oh, that. Well, now and again - every generation, to be more precise - there's one Inverted Pokémon that stands out from the rest. They're unique, and normal Inverted Pokémon like us can instantly tell them apart from others like us."

"What do you mean?" Gappy asked. "How are they different?"

"Well, for starters, they're don't have Miasma in them, and they never did."

You could drop a pin in the room.

"I don't get it," Gappy finally said. "Don't you need the Miasma to Invert - to _be_ an Inverted Pokémon?"

"That's why the X Variants are so strange," the Audino agreed. "They abhor the Miasma - if they meet a normal Inverted Pokémon, they'll immediately lose all semblance of self-control and try to kill them. Just a whiff of Miasma will set them off."

Lotus was… huh?

" _Hold on, Tom… this sounds familiar…_ "

"So she's useless, then," Mr. Rand finally concluded.

The Audino nodded. "She'd never help us or HUMANITY - she'd automatically try to kill us."

Mr. Rand turned back to Gappy. "Continue."

"Well, the third one - that weird one with the black wings - tore us apart and threw the X Variant into some big black hole, then disappeared. Then Tom tried to beat me up - but I killed him!" Gappy's pride returned.

"How exactly?" The Audino asked, going back to healing Grovyle, who had managed to open his eyes again.

"Well, at some point he turned into a Joltik, for whatever stupid reason. He tried to drain all of my electricity away - but when he crawled onto my back, I had a really, _really_ smart idea, and crushed him!" He turned around. "See the blood?!"

All that was there was the webbing I had used to stick onto there temporarily.

"What blood?" Octavian asked, scratching his head.

"What are you talking about, it's blood! See how sticky and wet it feels?"

…

…

…

" _Geez… how can 'Mr. Rand' trust this guy with anything?_ "

"He's not dead," Mr. Rand finally concluded, narrowing his eyes. "He tricked you."

"But - but there's no reason why he would do that!" Gappy protested. "He could just run away - why make the web and battle me and stuff?!"

The room went silent. I could see the gears turning in everyone's heads.

" _Tom, do you have any idea what you're going to do now?_ " Shade pressed. " _You're cover is going to be blown soon!_ "

They don't know I can travel in shadows, Shade - what's the worst that can happen?

"Tom… the Chikorita said he's a Marshadow…," Mr. Rand reasoned. "Marshadow… Marshadow… Shadow…"

Then he turned around without warning and struck his shadow - where I was right now.

I felt a sharp pain enter my… well, I didn't have any body parts right now.

" _Tom,_ run!"

Within a split second, I had jumped out of Mr. Rand's shadow and into the Audino's.

Mr. Rand's eyes followed my path, and he leaped into the air before slamming his fist down on the Audino's shadow.

An even sharper pain blossomed within me, and I almost fell out of the shadow in pain.

Shade… he's - he's tracking us!

" _Move as fast as you can between the shadows - see if you can lose him!_ "

I started jumping and weaving through the room's shadows, never staying in one for more than a single second, maximum. No matter how fast I went, though, Mr. Rand's eyes kept on tracking me.

"Mr. Rand…?" The Breloom asked, looking a little confused and worried. "What are you punching?"

"Shadows." Mr. Rand tersely explained. "Tom's here."

"Wh-What?! B-but I killed him!" Gappy insisted.

"Shut up, Gappy."

The other Pokémon were now tracking their shadows as well - and while the Audino and Octillery weren't able to track my speed if I went fast enough, the Breloom was easily able to keep up, just like Mr. Rand was.

It had to be their Fighting-typing - they must be more used to tracking the fast movement of birds and fists.

" _Tom, they're going to catch you any second now - what are you going to do?!"_

I don't know! I've just been improvising! I didn't know what I was supposed to do when I came here!

Any sneaking around went out the window. I came here to find more information on Lotus's mom and Flower's location, but all I found was this Grovyle instead.

Then it happened.

RIght in the middle of a jump from Grovyle's shadow to Octavian's shadow, Mr. Rand suddenly shot one of his arms in my path. I smashed into his arm, the Dark-type energy blocking me from merging into any shadows.

Mr. Rand grabbed me and held me up, pumping Dark-type energy into me continuously.

 _Any ideas_ now?!

" _Nope. Just… just try to escape,_ " Shade offered.

Thanks, I would have _never_ thought of that.

Gappy gaped. "But - But I-"

"You're stupid," Mr. Rand interrupted, before smashing me to the ground. "Came to rescue Grovyle?"

Nope, but I couldn't exactly talk through the pain.

Mr. Rand smashed me into the ground over and over again. My vision of the room started swimming as I struggled to remain conscious.

"Ooh, Mr. Rand, can we torture him? _Please_?" The Audino begged and my head was ground into the ground over and over again.

"Heal the Grovyle and continue with him," Mr. Rand ordered instead.

The Audino huffed and pouted as Miasma swirled around her. "Oh, poo!" She let out a tired sigh and set work on healing Grovyle some more.

Mr. Rand finally stopped grinding me into the ground and lifted me as he did with Gappy.

"Hey, boss?" Octavian looked at me with curiosity. "What are you going to do with him? If the girl is an X Variant, there's no point in using him as bait."

"Ship him off to Nyx," Mr. Rand decided. "She was interested in him."

He then threw me across the room, not even bothering to look at me. "He's injured - go ahead and break him. Get him ready for transport, too."

"Uh, boss?"

Mr. Rand just grunted.

"He's… he's getting away…"

What?!

"What?!" Mr. Rand spun around. "Hole girl!"

Hole girl? That's-

Then I felt a familiar grasp before I was pulled into a portal.

* * *

 **This chapter is part of a double upload - go on to the next chapter, if you wish.**


	24. 24 - A Complex Problem, Pt 2

**This is the second part of a double upload. Go to the previous chapter if you clicked to this first.**

* * *

(Tom, Distortion World)

I tumbled backward, landing in a painful heap.

"Oww…." I moaned.

"Get up, Tom," Merla commanded.

Lotus bounded forwards, helping me up. "Are you okay - he didn't hurt you too badly, did he?!"

I slowly pulled myself into a sitting position. "Merla? Lotus? What are you...What took you so long?!"

Merla rolled her eyes. "It's difficult, you know, holding a Shadow Force for that long," she groaned. "It took me some time, though - I had to calm Lotus down from her rage earlier."

"What was that about, Lotus?" I asked, turning to her. "Why were you so angry?!"

Lotus was the 'X Variant' - that much was clear. Still… for her to act so bizarrely...

"It was the voice," Lotus's eyes looked distant. "When I saw that Inverted Plusle and that black mist, everything sort of went into a haze. The next thing I knew, I lost control of my body, as if someone else had taken control of my body."

She blushed. "S-sorry about that."

"It's no problem."

"A-anyway… did you find anything out about my mother?"

"Other than Henka and Nyx captured her? Nothing. I don't know where she's being held."

"We'll have to return another day, then," Merla stated. "They're still on their guard. If you go back, they'll capture you again - and I don't think they'll allow me to free you again. If nothing else, they'll use you as bait to capture me, to stop you from escaping."

"So… we just wait, then?" Merla's words left a sour note in my mouth. They made sense - like most of what Merla says. But it felt wrong, for some reason.

Merla nodded. "We should head back to camp."

"But the Grovyle-"

"Do you want to stick around here for longer than necessary?" Merla looked around at the bleak and warped Distortion World around her. "It's not the most comfortable place to talk."

"Fine, take us back to camp, Merla."

A small portal appeared beneath our feet - but instead of Merla's normal portals, which were thick and purple, this portal was a pitch black. We fell through it like quicksand.

"Merla, what's going on?!"

"Something - something's interfering with my powers!" She shouted back, confused.

"What are you talking about?!"

But before she could answer, I saw a pair of eyes - blood-red eyes. Familiar eyes.

Then another, and another, and another.

Figures appeared out of the shadows of the Distortion World, looming over our sinking forms. They regarded us coldly, without compassion or care.

They also all were Merla.

"Merla, what's-"

"I don't know!" Merla was whipping her head back and forth, trying to take in all of her mirror images. "What are these… clones?!"

" _It can't be! These - these are all of Dad's Drones!_ "

Are you talking about Giratina's army?!

" _Yeah - but why are they fighting against us?_ " Shade sounded distressed, as though wringing his hands. " _We're all on the same side!_ "

Then we heard stomping - loud and powerful. The portal shuttered and flickered, before closing entirely, booting us back to the Distortion World.

Then we saw _him_.

" _That's Dad! He'll… help... us_." Shade trailed off.

The full might of an Inverted Giratina appeared, the Drones the size of ants around him. He draped smoky white wings over us.

Miasma swirled around his form as he regarded us with cold blue eyes. Then he smiled, no warmth reaching his expression.

" _Attack._ "

The Drones descended on us like a swarm, tearing at us with shadowy energy. I closed my eyes as a wave of pain descended over me, blocking my vision.

"Get off me!" Merla roared, somewhere off to the side as I heard her wrestle and throw Drones off of her en masse. But for everyone she attacked and defeated with draconic and ghostly powers, two more came in their place.

Shade - what's going on?!

" _I… I can't believe it. Dad… how?!_ " Shade was muttering to himself, clearly confused. " _I… how did he get to you?! You're the only one with access to the Distortion World, other than us!_ "

Shade, not the time! Think of a way to get these off of us!

" _But - but there's no way..._ " Shade despaired. " _Dad made thousands - no, millions - over the last few millennia. And… and there's Dad himself here…_ "

Shade continued despairing - but I continued to struggle harder.

" _Tom… I don't know what to say…_ "

Shade… you know what? Continue working on my powers.

" _But there's no point - you'll die here before you get a chance to use them._ "

Shade, did I stutter?

" _... "_

It's now or never, Shade. I believe in you. You said I had some special power inside me, right? I have to get it now, or… or I'll die.

" _I… I can't. We've lost._ " Shade fell silent.

Shade?

Shade?

SHADE!

But Shade didn't respond.

I tried thinking deeply, tried pulling any kind of anti-Miasma energy from within me.

"It's okay, Tom."

Was that… Lotus?

"Yeah - it's me. Open your eyes, Tom."

I opened my eyes.

We weren't a pretty sight. Blood dripped from every inch of skin I had. I might have been safer if I had stayed with Mr. Rand. Ghostly energy leaked from me profusely, weakening me every second.

Merla had fallen unconscious already, doubly weak to ghost and dragon energies. I'm pretty sure the only reason she wasn't already dead was that Giratina didn't want to waste a perfectly good body - he'd probably attack her soul right after.

Out of all of us, Lotus was in the best shape - if not for the fact that, at the sight of Giratina, she had gone rabid. She was plowing through drones left and right with Icy Winds and Dark Pulses, wading through them in her furor.

"Do I… do I look like that, when I'm in my rage?" Lotus's voice, echoing around in my mind, asked.

Lotus… how are you-

"I had my out-of-body experience again… except now I fell into your head, Tom." Lotus sounded a little confused. "I wonder if this is permanent."

… Lotus… what do you think we should do?

"I'm not sure, Tom," Lotus answered. "And there's not much I can do right now, in your head. My body… it's fighting for me. The voice is fighting for me. It's trying to get to Giratina, to purge the Miasma from him or kill him before he can get anywhere."

The voice… what _is_ it?

"Is that important right now, Tom?"

I'm not sure, Lotus, but… but yeah, I think it's important.

"Well, it's like Mom's warm hugs, or your voice of encouragement, or…" Lotus faltered. "I'm not sure, but… it's a bit like every uplifting thing I've ever had."

Uplifting, huh?

"It's… like a light. It guides me, it brightens me, it strengthens me… it's… do you get what I'm talking about?" Lotus sighed in my head. "I… we should try to think of a way out of this…"

But hazy memories started bubbling up in the back of my mind - ones that I had forgotten soon after they happened.

* * *

…

…

… _are we… are we still in the prison?_

… _is that… that's Dusknoir, and there's Pillar… and they're fighting some Zoroark - no, it's a Houndoom - Henka!_

 _And - and Vinia and Naetle, and some weird Piplup… they're fighting Night._

 _Where are Merla and Glacia?!_

 _Where am I?_

" _You know, Night, you could have left some for me." My mouth was talking of its own accord as I scanned the room. "It's not that polite to take all of the battles - I'd have liked to fight as well."_

 _Night turned to me, her mouth opening slightly. "Are you…" Her eyes narrowed. "You aren't the Litwick boy. Who are you-"_

 _I started laughing…_

… _no… no, this isn't_ me _who's laughing. What's… what happened to my body?_

" _Tom?" Koga asked me, concerned. "What's… what's with you?"_

 _I wiped a tear from his eyes. "Oh… oh, that's rich. I'm not the Litwick boy… no, I am him. You're meeting the real him for the first time - not that amnesiac parasite." I stood up. "Tim the Lampent, at your service."_

 _Amnesiac parasite…?_

 _Alice got up, in pain. "T-TIM?!" She screamed, trying to get near me. "Are you…"_

" _Oh, hello… sister."_

 _The room grew silent._

" _Took you long enough to recognize me. All those months had passed… I was trying to talk to you, begging for your help… and in the end, what do I get? A pretentious braggart teaching the parasite how to fight."_

 _What is he talking about?_

 _My body turned away. "Consider ourselves enemies." My body finally said._

" _W...what?" Alice asked, uncomprehending. "What are you…"_

 _My body fell into a formal bow. "Night, would you accept me as your servant?"_

 _Night fell silent. Then she responded._

" _No. You have another role to play, and it isn't as one of my pawns." She admitted with a grimace on her face. "My father… he wishes to 'return' it to what it once was."_

 _I grinned. "All the better."_

 _Night nodded. "All the better. I suppose that it is time for us to leave, then." She faced her servants. "Come here for Teleportation."_

 _No… no, I had to escape!_

 _Let me out of here!_

 _Alice tried to get up. "Tim!" Then Kol stepped and stomped on her, causing her to cry out in pain._

 _My body did nothing._

 _Night's forces gathered, still strong. "A perfect victory," she idly commented. "I honestly can't think of a better way for this to have ended." Night kicked an unidentifiable corpse… one that looked strangely familiar. "Well, except for this ugly thing."_

 _Henka stretched. "Night… there is one thing that could make this victory sweeter." Then Henka took a look at Glacia, who was… was she_ smiling?

 _How could she be_ smiling _?! And - and why was she a Glaceon?!_

 _Night turned to Henka, interested. "Really? What?"_

 _Henka adopted a hateful smile. "The princess's death." He then leaped at Glacia, who didn't react._

 _One of Henka's appendages slammed into Glacia's prone throat, piercing it. She still didn't react._

" _Goodbye, princess."_

 _Then Glacia smiled as Henka found he couldn't pull his 'arm' out from inside her throat._

" _Thank you, Henka." She told him. "You will be much more useful than she ever was."_

 _Glacia evolved in the opposite direction, turning back into an Eevee, as Henka screamed in agony, the color of his fluid vacillating between pinkish lavender and putrid green. His form kept on transforming, from a Gardevoir to a Dragonite to a Roserade to a Houndoom to a Metagross to a Dusknoir, and various other forms as well._

 _Soon, though, the transformations stopped, and Henka stopped screaming in pain. His fluids were now a gray - a perfect gray if that was possible._

 _Henka opened his eyes, and malevolence stared out into the world. Then, puppeteering his mouth, a strange voice spoke - one that was strangely… familiar? "Strange… in trying to kill me, he has only made me stronger." The fluid undulated. "What a mistake. He has paid dearly for his arrogance."_

 _Glacia crawled to her feet. "You… you mons…" She tried to gather energy for a Shadow Ball but collapsed instead. Was she back to normal?_

 _The stranger's arm transformed into the arm of a Dusknoir. A large Shadow Ball, crackling with black electricity hit Glacia, who swayed on the spot._

 _The stranger turned to me. "Now that she's dealt with, would you like me to rid you of your parasite?"_

 _Parasite? He can't be referring to..._

" _If at all possible, then please do as you wish." I eagerly nodded. "Please give Tom the most amount of pain imaginable."_

 _No… no, I can't die here._

 _Let me out of here! Get me out of here!_

 _Someone save me!_

 _The stranger smiled. "Of course." He formed another spear of fluid, this one gray. "Hold your breath."_

 _Then he stabbed me._

 _Pain lanced up and down me - not my body, but_ me _\- the actual me. I felt myself shudder, locked inside the confines of my body._

 _Is there… is there any way I can escape this?_

 _I… I don't want to die!_

 _I felt something pulling me out, trying to corrode, to destroy me. I - I had to hold on! Something - something has to save me!_

We're here for you.

 _Is this… what… is this?_

 _Something strange… yet also familiar… began to pour out of me, unlocked by the stranger grasp on my soul. It was… light. A bright, whitish-yellow light started shining from where the stranger stabbed me._

 _The stranger frowned a little._

 _What… what are you?_

We are your eternal servant, the light that will shine its way through the darkness, _the voice answered._ You may call us whatever you wish - how can we help you?

 _Help me… can you… can you help me get out of this? To help me survive?_

We will do our best, Master Tom.

 _The light… it healed me. But it wasn't fast enough. There wasn't enough to heal me faster than the stranger could rip through my soul._

 _Even with this light's help, I would still die._

…

…

…

 _Heh. Well… what now?_

What would you like us to do, Master Tom?

 _I scanned the room. Then I found her._

 _Glacia's face, slowly processing what was happening. Miasma roiled around her._

 _Can you fix that?_

We will do our best, Master Tom.

 _In Glacia's direction, the light shone a little brighter. The light, at my direction, concentrated on the Miasma in Glacia. Within half a second, it was all burned away - though the light darkened when it came into contact with the Miasma._

It is completed, _the light answered, now much smaller and tinnier._ What else would you like us to do, Master Tom?

 _As my life faded away and I felt something pop and crack inside me, and as the voice faded away into nothingness, I smiled._

 _No… thank you._

 _And with that, I exploded into a final shower of light._

* * *

What… what was that?!

"That… that was the light!" Lotus had looked into my memories. "That thing - it sounded exactly like my light does!"

Pieces started connecting in my mind.

Lotus's voice - _my_ voice.

The power I supposedly had - the one Shade was so insistent existed.

The light burning away Glacia's Miasma.

 _The vaccine_.

Lotus, find the voice! It must be somewhere inside me - you're the X Variant! You've listened to its voice more than anyone else has!

You're the one who has to awaken the power inside me!

"I-I'll try," Lotus promised, her voice growing determined.

" _And I'll do my best to help_."

Shade?

" _I saw that memory - and I think I can figure out where it is now, so I can pull it out. Just stall and power through. We'll make things go through on our end!_ "

I nodded. Got it.

I brought my attention back to the battle. The Drones were trying to drag Merla's body away - probably for some awful purpose. Lotus's body was finally flagging - even with all of the berserker determination her body had, it had limits. The Drones were pushing her back as the Fairy and Ice-Type energies flagged around her.

Now that my memory from the prison partially returned, I could see some light, deep within Lotus, fighting against the Miasma that had saturated the Distortion World. It was slowly going out but was still strong enough for me to see.

I started jumping through the Drone's shadows, making my way to Lotus.

" _It is futile to resist,_ " Giratina commanded. " _Fall to the might of Lord Ahriman._ "

Shade, does he _usually_ talk like this?

" _Only when he's practicing for his eventual takeover of the Hall of Origin. Now stop talking and let me focus!_ "

I jumped into Lotus's shadow and gained her powers, before jumping back out and turning into a Skarmory. As more Drones dropped from portals around me, I started weaving around them, eventually making my way to Giratina.

Giratina vanished.

" _He's using Shadow Force - dodge!_ "

I jumped into a Drone's shadow right as Giratina slammed into the spot where I had been.

" _Where is he?!"_ Giratina bellowed, the roar echoing around the Distortion World.

"Right here!"

I turned into a Pangoro - Mr. Rand - and started smashing Ice Punch after Ice Punch into the back of Giratina's skull.

It did next-to-no damage, only further enraging Giratina.

" _YOU FFFFFFOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLL!_ "

He's one for the dramatics, isn't he?

Now all of the Drones were trying to attack me. On the plus side, that allowed Lotus's body to try to attack Giratina (was that a good thing?). On the other side, they were trying to attack _me_ \- and they could reach into shadows if they knew which one I was in.

"Try to catch me!"

Despite everything, though, I was feeling remarkably cheerful. For the first time since I was running with Flower, I was having fun again.

"Hold on to that feeling, Tom!" Lotus shouted in my head. "I think I got a handle of the light right now!"

Have fun? Will do.

I jumped through shadows constantly, jumping out to do some damage against Giratina with a super-effective form and attack before jumping back into the shadows. Seeing Giratina's growing rage only made me more elated - whatever I was doing was _working_.

I popped up near Lotus. "Say, Lotus, what do you think we should do?"

"KILL THEM! KILL THEM ALL!" Lotus's berserk body answered.

"Wrong! Let's mess with them!"

As Lotus went to destroy as many Drones as she could in it effort to reach Giratina, I started taunting them.

"It's obvious why you can never stand a chance against Arceus - you're too stupid to even get to his front gate!" As I said this, I jumped to Giratina's back, turned into a Micinno, and started using Tickle on him, forcing Giratina into convulsions.

" _KILL HIM!_ "

As I continued dodging, I snorted. "Ooh, you're going to _kill_ me? Good luck with that!"

Lotus, Shade, how much further until you pull out the light?

" _Just a bit more - keep going!_ "

Unfortunately, I couldn't keep going. A Drone finally managed to latch onto me - and with it came several more, dogpiling on me and stopping me from getting out.

" _FINALLY!_ ," Giratina shouted. " _Now, in the name of Lord Ahriman, I can finally beat you!_ "

I just stared at Giratina.

"You know… without Shade, you must be _so_ miserable." I opened my arms as wide as I could. "I'll accept you, you know. I like you, regardless of how huffy you are."

" _Why would I accept you, when I have the GLORIOUS Lord Ahriman to serve?!_ "

I then felt something crack - something familiar.

"You'll see," I promised.

A bright glow started radiating from me as tiny beams of light started shooting from the surface of my body.

 _We must apologize for leaving you for so long, Lord Tom_ , the light whispered to him. _Please, forgive us._

No problem - oh, and Lotus? Shade?

Their exhausted voices reached me. " _Yeah?"_

Nice job, guys.

"Thanks."

Now, light?

 _Yes, Master?_

Shine as if you've never shone before.

The light grew in size, almost blinding me. Whenever it contacted Miasma, it burnt it up, making it disappear - though it got destroyed in the process as well. With energy coursing through me, I threw all of the Drones that had piled on me off.

" _What… what is this?!_ " Giratina roared.

"My power," I answered, smiling.

I then noticed that Lotus - the body - was staring at me. Light shone from it too - certainly not as brightly as it did from me, but it shone brightly nonetheless. It was many magnitudes brighter than it was before, at the very least.

"Lotus?"

Lotus's mouth opened. "What would you like me to do, Master?"

"Huh?" Lotus's real voice, in my head, asked. "What's happening?"

It's the light - it's taken you over.

Light, give Lotus her body back.

Lotus's body looked at me curiously. "Have I failed you, Master?" The light, puppeting her body, asked.

No, I'd just like to have Lotus in control of her body again.

Lotus's body slumped. Then she pulled herself wearily to her feet.

"Ugh…well, I think it worked, Maste- sorry, Tom."

Master? Is she still being controlled by the light?

"N-no - and I think I can hear you telepathically, too," Lotus explained slowly. "My mouth - it's moving of its own accord, Mast- no, it's just Mast-"

Light, don't force her to say Master.

"Tom. Tom, Tom, Tom." She repeated. "Ugh… sorry about that."

"No problem," I said, as I dodged another of Giratina's attacks - he had gotten tired of waiting for us to stop talking. "Get Merla, and try to wake her up."

Lotus nodded. "Of course, Master Tom." She didn't seem to notice she had said it again.

I frowned.

Light, I told you _not_ to make her call me master!

 _She said it of her own accord, Master Tom._

I snorted.

I sincerely doubt that.

 _We may have a larger influence on her now. She had wanted to say it before._

… you know what, fine. If she doesn't have a problem with it, it can continue. Make sure this doesn't happen again.

 _Of course, Master Tom._

I continued holding off Giratina and the rest of the Drones, as Lotus tried to wake up Merla.

Light, try to destroy the Miasma inside Giratina. It might make him better.

 _We will do our best, Master Tom._

I shone the light onto Giratina's body - but the Miasma just kept generating itself in response.

 _Master Tom, there is too much Miasma to destroy. We are not able, at this time, to purify Giratina._ The voice sounded deeply sorry. _Please, forgive us-_

I sighed.

Light, you know that I'm not angry.

 _Of course, Master Tom._

" _Tom, I don't think you have enough of this… light… to be able to cure Dad of the Miasma. You'll need more._ "

What do you mean?

" _It's generating as much of itself as it can, but it's not on legendary levels like Dad is. You need more of this light to purify Giratina, and what I want to know is how the Ahriman managed to Invert him_."

I grit my teeth.

Seriously?! Even with my new power…

" _... we can't save Dad_."

And no matter how powerful a Marshadow's body is, it can't stack up to Giratina - not yet, at least.

" _We have to run, then_."

But how? Giratina's closing the portals, and there's no other way to get to and from the Distortion World!

" _Wait… are you saying that_ Dad _is the one closing the portals?!_ "

Yes!

" _But Dad can't close portals - or at least, he can't cancel the Drone's portals. He has to have the Drones shut them off themselves - he only has dominion over his portals, and no one else's._ "

… then… then how did he close Merla's?

" _I don't know?!_ "

 _Master Tom, may we explain?_

Uh… yes?

 _In the process of Inversion, a Pokemon's powers are reversed. Giratina's power to create portals has been replaced with the ability to close them._

…

" _Then there's no way forward, is there?_ " Shade finally said.

…

" _Tom, what are you… do you really think that will work?_ "

Look, it might be our only shot. Just hang tight.

" _Well, it's not like I can do much else. Good luck_."

Thanks. Lotus?

"Yeah, Master Tom?" Her voice responded near immediately in my head. "Hold on, did I say Master? I'm sorry, it just sort of slipped out." Light, it doesn't sound like she's okay with it.

…

Anyway, Lotus, don't worry about it. How's Merla?

"She's doing fine. She's coming to."

That's good. When do you think she'll be able to attempt a portal?

"In a few minutes, maybe. I'll ask."

Okay, when she's ready, tell me. I'll continue holding them off until then. Make sure no Drones or anything harm her until then, got it?!

"I understand, Master Tom. Oh, I said it again." She was a lot less concerned now about how the honorific kept slipping into her words.

Should we be concerned, Shade?

" _We can ask the light about it later. Pay attention to the battle!_ "

I dodged another Shadow Force from Giratina, who was looking rather irked at my passive fighting.

" _STAY STILL! I MUST KILL YOU, FOR LORD AHRIMAN!_ "

" _Oh, he's back to screaming again, isn't he?_ "

A lot of shadow jumping (intermixed with normal running, jumping and flying - I've learned my lesson about automatically jumping to shadows to avoid attacks). A few dodges later,I finally heard the report from Lotus.

"Master Tom, she's ready!"

…

"Master Tom?"

Lotus, you _are_ aware that you're calling me Master, right?

"So?"

… now's not the time to be worrying about this. Is Merla preparing the portal?

"She's trying, but it's slow."

So I need to distract Giratina even more, then.

I flapped up to Giratina. "Catch me if you can!"

"Master Tom, good luck!"

I punched Giratina repeatedly with Ice Punches, before turning around and heading in the opposite direction of where Merla and Lotus were.

" _DIE, YOU INSIGNIFICANT GNAT_!"

Your dad is _so_ creative, isn't he?

" _Don't mock him_."

Now's not the time to play the protective son, Shade. Help me think of some taunts and insults.

" _Um…. er…. Try telling him that his Drones are… that they look_ so _much better than the model_."

"Hey, Giratina!" I shouted, catching his attention. "Your Drones look terrible - they look nothing like you!"

" _What?_ "

" _YOU PATHETIC WORM! YOU DARE INSULT MY CREATIONS?!_ "

"Insult? What insult?" I snickered. "That was a compliment. If they're supposed to look like _you_ , then they'd be terrible and _pathetic_!"

" _GRAAAAGGGGHHHH! DDDIIIIIIEEEE!_ " Giratina lunged at me, several metric tons of Pokémon slamming itself into my position.

"They're faster, too!"

Lotus, how much longer!

"A minute or two, Master Tom! Please, hold on!"

I walked up to him and turned into a Pangoro, slamming several strong Ice Punches into his throat. Giratina easily shrugged them off - but I climbed onto his back and started a Stomping Tantrum.

" _GET OFF ME!"_ Giratina tried shaking me off, but I held on tightly as I stomped around on his back.

The Drones tried attacking me, but I was able to dodge. Giratina wasn't, and suffered a multitude of attacks from his mindless soldiers.

Lotus, how much longer!

"Now, Master Tom!"

"It's been fun, Giratina, but I've got to leave. See ya!" With that I turned into a Ninjask and zipped away from Giratina, stopping right next to the open portal.

With one final wave, I jumped through the portal, Merla and Lotus climbing through seconds after.

" _NO!_ "

But we were already gone.

* * *

It was chaos.

Merla didn't make a portal back to camp (as I originally thought) - rather, she had brought it back to Mr. Rand's office.

It had only been ten or so minutes since I had escaped from Mr. Rand's grasp (and into Giratina's) - so they hadn't left yet. Or, rather, only Octavian, Gappy, and the Breloom had left - Mr. Rand and the Audino were still there, torturing Grovyle for some reason (amusement?).

"What the…?" The Audino whispered once we tumbled out of the portal landing in a heap right next to their new torture session.

Then the Miasma stabbed its way into her head, visibly overwriting reason with berserker rage. "DIEEE!" She screeched as she ran toward us, tiny claws on tiny hands slashing.

Not all that scary, compared to Giratina.

Lotus immediately bounded towards her as well, shooting an Icy Wind and sending several Ice Shards at her.

Then Mr. Rand finally registered our presence properly. He jumped forward and punched me with a Fire Punch, shooting me back several feet.

As I pulled myself to my feet, he sent a flurry of powerful punches my way, which I was only barely able to dodge.

"Merla, a little help?!"

But Merla was busy with… Drones?!

" _Giratina's sending them after us, Tom! We'll be outnumbered again!_ "

Gee, thanks, I wasn't aware of that.

" _Tom, when did you grow an attitude?_ "

Last night, when I was all moody and stuff… geez, has all of this happened today?

" _Pay attention to the battlefield!_ "

The tide of the battle grew further and further against us. On the plus side, Lotus managed to beat the Audino, making her faint on the spot. The Miasma roiled angrily in place at the Audino's loss.

 _Master Tom, should we cleanse the Audino of the Miasma_?

Uh, sure, go ahead.

But other than Lotus's victory, we weren't faring too well. There were way too many Drones for us to deal with - and for some reason, Mr. Rand wasn't too affected by them.

Merla, already tired from fighting off so many Drones in the Distortion World, wasn't doing too well right now - as in, she was seconds away from fainting again.

I only barely managed to dodge another punch from Mr. Rand. I probably would have been able to fare better usually, but since I was _just_ in a battle with a _Legendary_ , I'm not exactly at the top of my game.

I need time… time to rest, to recover. I can't fight for much longer, Shade.

" _Look, I have nothing. You've figured your way out of situations before - keep going._ "

I sighed.

Thanks for the vote of confidence, Shade.

" _You're welcome_."

All I knew was that _something_ had to change - we couldn't keep fighting like this. We need numbers, we need to rest.

We need an ally.

My eyes strayed over to Grovyle, who had been fighting to break free of his binds once we started battling.

" _Do you think he'll help us?_ "

The enemy of my enemy is my friend, right?

" _I've never heard of that expression before, but… sure. Go ahead._ "

I got my opportunity a few seconds later. Mr. Rand overextended in one of his punches. I hopped onto the arm and ran up to his shoulder, before leaping in the direction of the Grovyle.

"Sorry for the delay!" I transformed into an Audino. "But here I am!"

I charged up a Heal Pulse, stronger than I had ever before. I then aimed and fired.

Warm pink light suffused Grovyle's skin, and his semi-unfocused eyes sharpened.

"What are you doing?!" Mr. Rand shouted.

I then jumped into Grovyle's shadow, before popping out as in his form.

"We're friends," I lied. "And I'm doing what you thought I would."

I then cut down Grovyle's bindings.

Mr. Rand roared, before charging at me with a Fire Punch. But before he got anywhere, Grovyle was there to intercept, a glowing leaf arm blocking the attack.

"... it's nice to be free," Grovyle finally remarked, before turning to look at me. "Your name is Tom, right?"

I nodded. "Yep. But before we continue introducing ourselves, can we take care of these guys first?" I gestured to the Drones.

Grovyle disengaged from the clash of punches versus slashes, before jumping back. "Take care of the Pangoro for now - I won't take long."

Soon, the tide of battle shifted in our favor. Grovyle was _more_ than enough to take care of all of the Drones - and with Lotus helping him, it was a breeze. Merla took the time to recover as well.

And stopping Mr. Rand wasn't too difficult either. Mr. Rand was getting sloppy - and he was getting tired faster than I was.

I landed several decisive blows on him, before uppercutting him away through a wall.

"Goodnight, Mr. Rand."

I turned into a Sylveon and blasted Mr. Rand with a Moonblast, which took him out completely. He wouldn't be fighting any time soon.

I turned to see Grovyle and Lotus wipe out the last of the Drones - 'last' being the operative word, since more were constantly dropping out of portals, to be swatted like flies.

Shade, Giratina wanted to defeat Arceus with this… can you even call it an army?

" _Just be glad it's so weak - though once we get Dad back to normal, he'll be upset it was defeated so easily._ "

Eventually, Grovyle stopped battling, sheathing his arm-blades. As the Drones started falling into battle, he idly kicked them away, where they fell unconscious against the walls.

"Grovyle?"

"This facility… have you seen what awful things these Pokémon have done?" Grovyle asked rhetorically. "Trafficking, drug dealing, theft… all manners of crime and malice."

"Um…"

"I'm going to break everyone trapped in this nightmare of a building out." Grovyle looked at me. "You're strong, and you can heal me - would you like to help me?"

It didn't take very long to make a decision.

"Merla, you stay here and search for files on Nyx and HUMANITY," I gestured to Mr. Rand's desk. "See if you can find something in there. Lotus, keep her safe from any Drones."

"Yes, Master Tom!" Lotus bowed while Merla nodded. "I will do my best!"

Merla and Grovyle looked at Lotus, bemused, while I coughed into my arm. " _Anyway_ …take care of that while Grovyle and I take care of the captives."

Grovyle then decided that now was a good a time as any to start, and slashed through the door to the office before running out.

"I'll catch up to you guys outside!" I yelled at Merla and Lotus, before transforming to catch up with Grovyle.

"Anyone in the cages, we break free," Grovyle immediately ordered. "Any guards, we take out - got it?"

I nodded. "Got it."

Once we got to the cages and the guards finally showed up, eager for a fight - Grovyle turned to me.

"Breaking through these bars will take too much of my energy - can you take care of it while I stop the guards?"

I nodded, before turning into a Pangoro. "Got it."

Once Grovyle got to work on defeating the guards, I started punching and slamming the bars of the cages, frightening the inhabitants inside.

Within seconds, I broke through and tore a hole open in the cages.

"Get out - you're free! Run away, as far as possible!" I commanded.

They blinked at me, uncomprehending.

"Tom, if they're free, let them be! Don't waste time trying to encourage them - get to the next row!"

I nodded, before turning to them one last time. "We're sorry we took so long - but please, take the opportunity, and _run_."

I then turned away and started breaking more cages.

As we went forward, breaking as many cages as possible, the captives slowly started walking out of the cages - then, once they realized that 'no, it wasn't a trick' and 'no, there actually is a jailbreak happening', they started rushing out of the cages in a stampede, desperate to escape as fast as possible.

Once the other captives, those I hadn't broken out yet, realized this, they were pushing and breaking the bars themselves, knowing that they had the opportunity to do this without being punished.

As a result, my job was made incredibly easy. Soon, all of the captives were rushing down the halls, the stampede trampling many of the guards as they tried to stop us.

Mekug- the Turtonator I had faced earlier today - growled. "You… I'll stop this…"

That was all he managed to get out before a single Dig from Grovyle took him out.

"Tom, I'm flagging. Heal me, if you would."

I transformed back into an Audino and shot a Heal Pulse at him.

Grovyle flexed his claws, before sighing. "I'm still not at the top of my game."

"I'm not the best at healing," I apologized. "If my friend Vinia were here, she'd do a better job."

"What you're doing is fine enough." Grovyle fell back into the heat of battle, leaving me to break more cages.

"Tom?!" I heard a semi-familiar voice ask in surprise.

"Flower!" I turned to one of the unbroken cages. Flower was still in it, wrestling with the bars.

"Tom! You're here - you came back!"

I jumped to where she was trapped and broke through the bars cleanly. The shards exploded in a shower of fragments. Flower gingerly walked over them.

"You… you're so strong…" she whispered.

"Uh… yeah," I admitted. "I'm… I'm sorry our game of tag was cut short, Flower."

Flower looked toward the exit, before looking back at me. "You… you're not normal, are you?"

"No, not really. Though, I thought you already knew that, Flower."

She studied me for a second, before smiling. "Let's play again someday." Then she bounded out of the cage, running toward the exit with all of the others.

I shouted after her, smiling. "I'll hold you to that, Flower!" Light shone from me as I waved her goodbye.

Grovyle leaped next to me. "Heal me. Oh, and that reminds me, Tom - what's that light around you?"

As I healed him again, I tried to answer his question. "Oh, um, this is…"

Light, what's your name?

 _We are whatever you wish to call us, Master Tom._

"It doesn't have a name yet. It appears when I'm happy and can cure Inverted people."

Grovyle's eyes widened. "Really?"

I nodded before gesturing to one of the Inverted guards - the Braixen from earlier, who was covered with bee stings.

Grovyle wasn't the one to take her out - rather, it was, peculiarly, a vengeful Vespiquen, who slammed her hive dress onto the Braixen's head and stung her repeatedly with Attack Orders while she tried to pull the Vespiquen off. She didn't succeed, while the Vespiquen did.

"Here, I'll show you." I then sent some light to go purify the guard.

The Miasma shrieked and sputtered, but my light was too strong, and eventually, the Miasma was burned away to nothingness.

 _Master Tom, may we make them a new servant?_

What?

" _It's probably asking if you can make them like Lotus,_ " Shade explained. " _What do you want to do, Tom_?"

I'm… not sure. Will it harm them?

 _With no cursed Miasma, we will make it as harmless as possible_ , the light promised.

Then… then fine. But don't make them say 'Master' and stuff like that - don't make Lotus do that either.

 _Of course, Master Tom_.

The light… while I could tell it was subservient to me, it was nonetheless very creepy. It was a lot like the Miasma, in that regard - it would whisper into your ear and it liked to take control of things too.

But it was much less malevolent - in fact, it wasn't malevolent at all. Neither it nor the Miasma left anything hidden - their true nature laid bare before all.

The light filled the Braixen's body before our very eyes, causing her to shine like Lotus and I did. That must be the mark of the light's presence.

The Braixen slowly got up. "Ow… what.. What happened to me?"

She then noticed Grovyle, who had knocked her out earlier. "Ah - you!"

Grovyle got into a fighting stance. The Braixen didn't.

"What…?" she whispered, confused. She looked at her paws. "Why don't I want to hurt you… to kill you… where is the Miasma?!"

"Gone," I answered, under Grovyle's astonished eyes. "I destroyed it."

"You… you…" The Braixen flexed her paws. "I… I don't know what to say?"

"You're free now - just like everyone else," I promised. "You can live your life the way you want."

"O...okay, maste…. What?!" Her paws covered her mouth. "What was I about to say?!"

Light, I thought I told you not to make her call me Master!

 _We didn't, Master Tom,_ the light answered. _She is doing it of her own accord_.

As if!

I sighed. "Just… just don't worry about it," I told her, and she immediately gained a peaceful look over her face. Grovyle looked disturbed and was slowly edging away from me. "We're never going to meet again, so just… just forget about it."

Her eyes went glassy for a second.

"What.. what are you doing to her?!" Grovyle whispered, looking at me in shock.

"In all honesty, I have no idea. I got these powers around… half an hour ago?"

Oh, and light? We're not making any more servants.

The light didn't say anything, but I could feel a distinct air of protest coming from the light.

Yeah… Shade, we're just going to cure Pokemon of the Miasma. No more servants - this is just unnerving.

" _You're the boss - though, they_ would _be useful_."

They're _people_ , Shade!

" _And the Ahriman doesn't care about that! He's going to get as many servants and slaves as he can - he doesn't care about the morality of his actions! If you want to face him, you're going to need fighters on your side - ones that won't be as easy for him to take control of._ "

I ignored Shade.

" _Figures_."

"I won't be taking control of any more people," I promised to Grovyle.

Grovyle begrudgingly nodded. "If I see any hint of that being fired in my direction, I won't hesitate to attack," he warned.

The light must have spooked him badly, then. I wonder how he would have reacted if he saw Night's prison.

I turned to the Braixen. "What's your name?"

She curtsied as an introduction. "My name is Mageastra. Please, use me as you see fit." She frowned. "What did I just say? And… did I just curtsy?!" She looked disturbed.

I ignored her. "Can… can I just call you Mage or something?"

"Of course you can, Master Tom," she answered promptly. Then her eyes widened. "You… you did something to me!" What she was saying, though, was undercut by the second curtsy she was falling into.

"Mage, you don't have to obey me. Act as you did before I purified you." Hopefully, that command would work.

Suddenly, Mage pulled out of the curtsy. She was still frowning.

"I'm… what the hell?!"

I sighed. "Look, Mage… I… I took the Miasma away from you - I healed you. And it… it had some side effects." I _dearly_ hoped the Audino wasn't the same way - I didn't want to reconcile the tortuous maniac with a groveling servant.

"I… I don't know what to say…" Mage said, confused. "But… if you got rid of that plague… then thank you,"

Grovyle looked toward the exit. "We should leave. Where are the other two?"

Lotus, can you hear me?

"Yes, Master Tom?"

Okay, Lotus? Act and think the way you did before I got my new power - I want you to go back to normal.

"Okay, Tom."

I sighed in relief. I wouldn't have to worry about servant Lotus anytime soon, then. Hopefully.

I don't know how long these commands will last in all honesty. I just wish that things would go back to normal.

Anyway, Lotus, did you find anything on your Mom?

"No, we couldn't find anything. Everything in his desk was business-related - my Mom wasn't in it."

Drats.

"I - I'm-"

Don't say you're sorry. We'll figure something out. Just meet us by the entrance - don't use any portals.

"We're on our way."

I brought my attention back to Mage and Grovyle. "They're on their way. Grovyle, we should be leaving soon."

"You can leave. I'll be checking the rest of the building, to make sure no one was left behind. For now, I won't need your help. If you want, you can leave - I'll handle the rest."

Then before I could say or do anything, Grovyle hopped farther inside the building, out of sight.

I made to follow him before Mage grabbed my shoulder.

"Wait, I'm - I'm really confused. What… what's this light? Where is the Miasma - how did you help me?!"

"It's… it's complicated," I evaded. "The light burned the Miasma away - it no longer exists. Now it's in you instead."

"Oh… but why is it asking me to obey you, then?"

…

" _Tom, you can't tell the light to shove it_."

I don't _want_ slaves and servants!

"But - then what's this light in me?! What does it want - other than me to obey you or whatever."

She sounds abnormally okay with the idea of obeying me.

" _Look, Tom, you can't keep worrying about this - you have to accept it._ "

Nope, not going to, I'm not going to have people doing… this, all the time. It's weird and creepy, and I like people doing things of their own accord.

"It… it doesn't have a name yet. You can name it if you want. And as for what it wants… I'm not entirely sure."

It _said_ it wanted to obey the orders I gave it, but it kept on trying to make other Pokémon my servants, even when I explicitly told it not to. I can't trust it, not in any reliable capacity.

 _We must apologize, Master Tom_ , the light 'apologized'. _It is in our nature to create as much influence and power for you as possible._

"It… it wants to grow and spread," I translated. "And it wants to get as much influence and power as possible." I left out the 'for me'.

Mage looked conflicted, before sighing. "From one mental prison to another," she remarked. "Well, I'm fine with this, anyway. I didn't much like this place anyway. Mind if I travel with you guys?"

"You want to join us?" She nodded.

" _Go for it - she could be helpful. At the very least, she brings her skills to the table._ "

I suppose you're right.

"I don't mind - though you'll have to check in with the others." I wouldn't get any protest from Lotus, for obvious (though worrying) reasons. Grovyle and Merla… that would remain to be seen.

"Thanks. I'm pretty sure the Grovyle will be waiting for us outside, though."

"Oh, yeah… I guess you're right."

I started running to the exit of the large complex, with Mage trailing behind me closely. Most of the captives had already broken each other out and had taken out the guards through sheer numbers - we didn't have to do much else regarding that.

We escaped the complex and soon entered the main docking bay. "Do you see Grovyle, or an Inverted Ice Vulpix, Mage?"

"Inverted Ice Vulpix?" Mage scratched her head, before looking behind me. "Are you talking about the one over there?"

"What do you-"

"Tom!" All of a sudden I was knocked over as Lotus started licking me. "Are you okay?!"

Lotus, get off me.

"Oh, right." Lotus stepped off me, allowing me to get to my feet. Behind her, Merla stood, sighing.

"You'll be happy to know, Tom," she started. "That Lotus wasn't as insufferable as she is usually. She managed well under the pressure of the Drone attacks. They didn't spawn anywhere else, either. We're safe from them… for now."

"Drones?" Mage interrupted, looking confused. "What do you mean?"

Merla turned to Mage. "Tom, who is she?"

"She's… uh…Mage, you want to introduce yourself?"

Mage shrugged. "I used to be with these guys and HUMANITY. Now that I no longer have Miasma and I have nowhere to go, I want to stick around with you guys."

Lotus looked at me. "Tom?"

"She's trustworthy… I think."

"Then I don't have any objections."

Merla gaped at us. "You're… you're kidding, right?! She - she used to be with the guys who we _just_ destroyed! Do you not see the _giant_ red flags here?"

I did, but I also see that the light overrode all of her previous loyalties. I don't think she'll betray us - well, _me_ \- any time soon.

I didn't want to just _tell_ Merla that, though - it would just lead to more uncomfortable questions. I can take a dip in Merla's trust if it means not incinerating it with the truth of the light. At the very least, not right now, when she isn't used to it.

Oh, and Lotus? Mage? You aren't allowed to talk or let Merla know about the light's… 'loyalty-making' ability without me telling you to.

Lotus and Mage didn't react. I hoped that it was because of the order and not because they didn't hear it.

Merla seethed for a few more seconds, then sighed. "If… if she was with HUMANITY, then does she know where they're based at, or where Lotus's mother is?" she asked hopefully.

Mage nodded. "HUMANITY is currently based in Ring 8 - and if they haven't moved recently, then it'll still be there. As for her mother, she was sent to their base a week or so ago - I'm not sure where she's being held at right now. Probably in the detention block or something."

Merla didn't smile. "Then I guess we'll be going there, then. Let's get going."

"Ah - but what about Grovyle?" Mage asked, a little concerned.

"What _about_ him?" Merla asked, raising an eyebrow. "He's helped us, we've helped him - it's even now. We don't have to make this any bigger than it has to be."

"Merla, he's strong. If we're going to tackle HUMANITY - we might need all the help we can get."

Merla's face was upturned. Then she turned to look at Mage. "How big is HUMANITY?"

Mage scratched her tail. "It's… big? They have at least a few hundred Inverted Pokemon with them right now - and the number is growing all the time. Heck, a good seventy or so of us Inverted Pokemon were stationed here at the main smuggling site, and that wasn't even a third of the main force. Not to mention all of the non-Inverted Pokemon that HUMANITY has hired."

Merla was silent. Then she sighed. "I suppose you're right. If things go south, we'll need… all the help we can get. Do either of you know where he is?"

"I'm right here," his voice interrupted. The four of us turned to see Grovyle coming out of the building. "I heard what you said - and for what it counts, we need more information if we're going to break all of _their_ prisoners out, too. I don't like wading through armies, personally."

Mage piped up. "What kind of information are you looking for?"

Grovyle raised an eyebrow. "How much do you know?"

Mage started ticking off items on her fingers. "Let's see now… I know the guard routes and times, the location of the prison cells, which specific defense forces they can call in at any time - oh, and the _actual location of the base_!"

"... we'll hash out a plan later," Grovyle finally said, before turning to me. "I don't know what strange powers you have under your belt, but as long as none of you turn them against me, we can work together. Got it?"

I nodded. "Got it."

You hear that, light? No more infecting people without my consent - which will probably never come, for that matter.

…

I'm sorry, what was that?

 _...understood, Master Tom._

That reluctance was worrying - but now wasn't the time for that.

After a month of searching and trying to find out where Lotus's mom was, we finally succeeded. We had our lead, and we had a (slightly creepy and suspicious) power on our side.

 _... Master Tom…_

 _Anyway_ … for once, things are looking good!

…

" _Let's just hope it stays that way, Tom_."

* * *

Rax sighed, as he rubbed his temples. Being in power was… well, it wasn't _shocking_ or anything, but it was incredibly _dull_. All he had time to do was maintain his skills, rather than continue honing and perfecting them.

And he was _already_ delegating.

Neitra was a gift sent from Arceus - not that Rax wasn't aware of that before. His memory wiping toolset was more than pulling its weight - within a matter of days, they had managed to secretly capture all of Night's sleeper agents.

All it took after that was some hypnosis breaking (courtesy of the Malamar in Team Shulk - they got along rather well. And Nero was always ready to hypnotize and dehypnotize, as it was the exact thing his species was built to do) and some memory tampering, and they forgot all about their loyalty to Night and 'HUMANITY'.

Rax didn't exactly _like_ hypnosis, but it certainly was an invaluable tool in of itself. Night managed to nearly singlehandedly control the governments of several cities using it.

Speaking of Night, she was already causing waves. After all, what could give amnesia to the 'wonderful' and 'kind' Night? It must be the work of some dastardly villains - Inverted Pokemon, most likely.

Sometimes, Rax wondered why HUMANITY's whole charade hadn't crumbled on day one.

They had managed to extract a treasure trove of information from the agents as well - namely, the location of HUMANITY (constantly changing every four or five months, right now in Ring 8), the identities of the higher-ups, and of course, the actual purpose of HUMANITY.

The advancement of the power and status of Inverted Pokemon. To make them a 'master race'. To Invert and generate the loyalty of all Pokémon across Naixe.

And, eventually… to break all of the Rings and conquer all of the continents and Legendaries. The final act would be to resurrect all 'humans' that (supposedly) died in some cataclysm hundreds of thousands of years ago and create a 'utopia'.

The idea made Rax retch.

The older Rax got, the more mature he had gotten, and the larger his hate for Inverted Pokémon grew. His sister's aura terrified him, gave him hallucinations in his sleep, made him have fever upon fever. And while she never raised her hand against him (which would have probably caused him to snap), she let him bask in his powerlessness.

If she had done anything, it would have been a small mercy… or perhaps not. His hate wouldn't have grown so much if she _had_ raised a hand against him.

He had met other Inverted Pokémon as well - a Growlithe that had hung around Vismiana before being unceremoniously killed, a Masquerain that was swatted from the sky, a Tropius that had poisoned the sea Vismiana laid next to.

All killed… yet all made a mark, barring the Inverted Ice Vulpix in the mountain, who had both survived (presumably) and made him feel _good_ \- like a warm light in the darkness.

To mask one's evil… what a true fiend. To think that Merla had learned the technique as well - though, the higher-ups in HUMANITY had learned it as well, such as Night's sister Nyx (by the time that information was extracted, it was already too late, and she had already taken Night away) and their father, Pyre.

The Chandelure - the one at the Breaking. He had seen the Inversion, _felt_ it - and did nothing. Oh, sure, he 'helped' with the uprising - then mysteriously disappeared from the other Base within a matter of days.

Night's work, again.

He wouldn't make the same mistake twice.

Rax's philosophy toward Inverted Pokemon changed over the years, as he matured. At first, he was a crusader. Destroy as many as he could, before time claimed his life. Gain strength and power, become a Venturer - do as much as he could to remove the presence of Inverted Pokémon from the face of Naixe.

And it hadn't changed _too_ much from that in the years since the philosophy's creation. Oh, sure, he learned the importance of politicking somewhere here and there. It allowed him to be the leader of his team, after all (though, being named 'Team Cruel' was a rather large insult).

He had also realized that to get the aid of other people to take on such monsters, he had to be 'nice'. Often, the only one he could be 'nice' to was Neitra (suffice to say, after he had saved Neitra's life in a Mystery Dungeon when they were kids, they were the most stalwart of friends). Even with his own 'teammates', Perni and Dram, he was often too acerbic and biting.

Neitra was a godsend in smoothing things over. It helped him manage his deficiency in kindness - as long as he didn't go over-the-top, cutting remarks would be replaced with kindness and sweetness in their heads.

Neitra didn't mind - he knew the real Rax, in all his glory. And he probably liked what he saw, because even when he more than repaid his debt to him, he kept on working for Rax.

He couldn't thank him more for that.

But other than that, his philosophy had only changed recently - with the uncovering of the HUMANITY 'conspiracy'.

They hadn't gotten very far - they were still trying to gather forces, after all. They had their fingers in several underground operations, but other than that, they were mostly passive. Night had been the main driving force behind the takeover - over the last decade or two, she had captured and controlled several dozens of Base leaders.

Once given the order, they would hypnotize their forces. Then they would be Inverted, cementing their loyalty to HUMANITY.

Rax had been working overtime, meeting with those leaders (who didn't suspect him) and dehypnotizing and rewriting their memories. Over the last month, he had only managed to reprogram a good ten of them - not nearly enough.

HUMANITY was forcing his hand. They showed that, while they weren't particularly smart, they _were_ positioning themselves for a sudden and powerful takeover. If he didn't stop them _now_ , they were going to destroy civilization.

So, no. He wasn't going to 'destroy as many Inverted Pokémon as possible'. That was facetious and pathetic.

He was going to decimate HUMANITY - and then, when they didn't have any more agents, he was going to teach the world that _no_ Inverted Pokémon would stand victorious as long as he was alive.

Hence, his counter-invasion. Ten bases, his forces ripe for the taking. One location, which was gleaned from the agents' minds.

Complete annihilation for the demons.

And then… the Miasma. The bane of his existence. The creation of all Inverted Pokémon.

He would destroy all of it.

He then frowned, reminding himself of his current task. Then he called a reprogrammed Milla - at first completely loyal to Falcon, now slavishly loyal to him and him alone - to his side.

"Milla!"

"Yes, Captain Rax?" She eagerly asked, nearly on her toes in excitement.

Rax frowned. "Calm down - and I want you to call some Pokémon to my office. Both subdued, preferably. And bring Nero here - I might need his assistance."

"Of course, Captain Rax." Her voice was now much more tempered and even. Rax let out a small smile, which caused her eyes to brighten. "Who would you like me to summon?"

"A Klang - his name is Shift. Not to mention the Whirlipede Captain Phon captured the other day, that 'Jenga'."

Milla nodded. "Of course, Captain Rax." She immediately scurried out of his office, ready to perform her task.

Rax sighed. Milla was… well, she _did_ make his job easier, by several magnitudes (he was _not_ going to waste his time with paperwork) - but at times, she was _insufferable_.

Ms. Kiss, the medical matron, was also getting on his nerves. She was constantly asking him what happened to Milla - apparently, he was the most important thing in her life now, and she would almost exclusively talk about him now.

Rax swore he heard Neitra snickering at him at that point, though he resumed his usual stony face when Rax brought his attention to him.

Thankfully, there wasn't any chance of Ms. Kiss. wanting to revolt. She was already memory manipulated as well - all important figures in the base were, right after the agents. She was loyal to him above all - no matter her concerns for her friend, she would only come to him for guidance rather than a confrontation.

What's more, she had prior attachments and contacts - and those attachments certainly come in handy, now and again.

Dr. Sahira - literal witch doctor. Any and every efficient healer was useful, considering the scope of the invasion. Not to mention magic - a tool that, if what Ms. Kiss told him was true, could help turn the tide against the Inverted and potentially find a way to destroy Miasma.

Purification rituals? Love spells (a.k.a. more mind control)? Any other potential talent and power magic could provide?

He was going to milk her for all she was worth. He had already teleported Ms. Kiss to Helliana Town to convince Dr. Sahira to join the invasion. If nothing else, he could just have Neitra and Nero fix her up.

God, were those two useful.

"Here they are, Captain Rax," Milla interrupted his thoughts as she brought a small entourage inside his office. Nero, his chief hypnotic agent, stood to the side as he surveyed Shift and Jenga, who were both being held down by his loyal agents.

Jenga… the 'traitor'. Brought to his mental knees by drugs and loneliness. That Torchic kid - Falcon's son - tried to be a nice guy and all to him, but failed miserably. That disruption at the Breaking campsite soured his opinion of him, too.

Then - big surprise - he was found by a small drug ring in Ghiliam City. Apparently (from what Neitra gleaned), one of the ring's suppliers caught wind of Jenga's location and demanded that they hand Jenga over if they want to stay afloat.

No questions who that supplier was working for.

Naturally, the drug ring would obey their supplier - so Jenga turned himself in and probably hoped he'd find some Nip in whatever prison he found himself in. Too bad they were here to scoop Jenga out.

"So… a rogue agent of HUMANITY… pathetic. Are you _that_ stupid? Did you think they would let you go without any consequence?"

Jenga spat at Rax. "Are you working with them?"

Rax's face was stony. The guards made to stamp at Jenga's back, to make him feel any sort of pain - but Rax stopped them with a wave of his wings. "No… allow me."

Rax flapped up close to Jenga, then, with false calm, began to talk. "Where do you think you went wrong?"

"Huh?"

"I repeat - where do you think you went wrong?"

"I… I insulted you?"

"Wrong answer."

Rax wound himself up into a Flame Wheel - a weak move, one that he pretty much never used. He then started grinding himself into Jenga, causing him to cry out with searing pain.

It went on for twenty seconds or so before Rax let up. "Let me repeat. Where do you think you went wrong?"

"I - I-" Jenga coughed. "I… I had Nip. I shouldn't have used it to forget my problems. It's led me down this rabbit hole of pain and despair."

"Wrong answer."

Rax wound himself up for another round. This time he didn't let up for over a minute. Jenga was seared charcoal black, and his eyes began to swim.

"One last time. Where do you think you went wrong?"

Jenga didn't say anything.

"Let me give you a hint - it was the first thing you said when you came into this room."

"But - but that was my first guess!"

"Only partially correct. Now, take a second and _think_ before you belt out your final answer." Rax started up a Flare Blitz in preparation. "You won't get a fourth chance."

Jenga was silent and contemplative. Then, his voice trembling, he spoke. "I asked whether you were with - whether you were with… that organization."

"Correct. And _why_ was that a mistake?"

Jenga opened his mouth, but Rax didn't give him his chance.

"Because I _hate_ Inverted Pokémon - and HUMANITY, as the culmination of all Inverted Pokémon."

Rax sneered. "That wasn't an insult. That was a capital offense."

Jenga gulped.

"You know, kid, you're an idiot. You grab onto whatever floatation device you can get. First, you grab the Torchic kid. Then, when some random Pawniard offers you a substance to knock your block off, you change sides and throw away what you had before. Then, when HUMANITY no longer suits your needs, you jump into some drug ring. Again and again, you decide 'Hey, my _previous_ loyalties don't matter to me - I can survive no matter what!'"

"And guess what, kid? Your idiocy has finally caught up to you. You pissed off maniacs, and they want your blood."

"And that's where we come in."

Jenga stared at him. "What… what are you going to do with me?!"

"Nero, come on up." The Malamar slid forward.

"Look, kid - if I was any random guy, I'd let you rot in your prison for all of the stupid things you've done with your life. Lucky for you that _I_ see potential."

"Potential?"

"Nero, typical loyalty treatment." Rax instead barked. "Make him loyal to me and me only - and for this, make sure that his loyalty to me is worth more than his life, and certainly more than his precious 'Nip'. Convert all of the enjoyment he got from Nip into loyalty to me - and make it unbreakable."

Nero saluted, almost salivating at the task.

As Nero worked, Rax smiled.

Once Nero was done and he was loyal to him, he'd have Neitra modify his memories too - make him hate HUMANITY with every last drop of blood in his veins. Rax saw his rampage at the Breaking site - he'd make good use out of the juggernaut.

But he was for fun, mostly. Realistically, most Pokemon could take his place.

But not Shift.

Rax saw Night's memories - the good, the bad… the awful. But there was one wonderful moment - Merla's death, in the battle of the prison.

The sight of her corpse of the ground, decaying by the second… it breathed life into him.

He was able to breathe much more easily that night and for the next few nights as well… but then he remembered that particular moment wasn't all that was important within the memory.

Vinia, Glacia, Naetle. All Venturers. All of them new about the truth of Night, and the truth about _him_. All unaccounted for now that the prison is gone.

All potential enemies.

And all share one friend, one that is currently alive and still a friend.

"I'll keep this brief, Shift," he started. "Your talent is wasted generating electricity for the building. I'm offering you a position."

"A… new position?"

"You have three friends that are currently alive. They are threats. They are dangerous." As Rax spoke, Shift's face grew progressively angrier and angrier.

Excellent.

"If you retrieve them for me, you will be promoted to a leader of your own Team - Team Shift. How about that?"

Shift spit on the ground in front of Rax.

"Thought you'd be uncooperative. Nero?"

"Just finishing up here." Jenga's eyes were vacant as his small brain struggled to process all the artificial changes Nero had just made in it. "What about the Klang?"

"Another loyalty procedure - but this time, let's add a little twist." Rax's face twisted. "Convert all of the love he held for his friends into love for me - not fanatically, mind you, like these guys. Make it so that I'm the one that matters to him, and that he stops caring about all of his other friends."

Oh, it wasn't particularly evil or manipulative or anything - but judging from the hate in Shift's eyes, it did its purpose. After all, the Steel-types' greatest strength was their apathy. The more emotional a Steel-type was, the easier they were to hypnotize.

The easier Shift's loyalty would come to him.

Nero rubbed his fins together in glee. "As you wish, Captain Rax."

Sometimes, being in power wasn't so dull after all.


	25. 25 - A Prelude to the End

(Naetle)

I still don't remember much from that day.

Dusknoir and Strawberry told us that some evil cult called the Temporalists had kidnapped us and were trying to make us go 'save the human' or something along those lines.

I don't remember that. Though, I don't remember anything else from that day either. It was all a bit of a blur to me, from when I was talking to Sky in the shed to when Dusknoir and Strawberry had already left Helliana Town.

Save the human… that meant either Sky or Tom since those were the only two humans in existence. Well, as far as I knew, anyway. But Tom was long dead (which was a lot to unpack - we were good friends, but… well, it doesn't really feel like he's gone, for some reason) and Sky is right next to me.

So who was supposed to be 'helped'?

Dusknoir was adamant that the prophecy was nothing more than hogwash and drivel created by the Temporalists, and that we had better things to do. When I _asked_ him what better, more important things we had to do though, he remained silent.

Dusknoir had been quiet and reclusive for the past month or so (yes, month. We're just wandering around Naixe with no direction at this point). The Miasma was taking its toll on him. He would constantly head off by himself as if he couldn't stand to see us.

To be fair, it was hard for us as well. Neither Sky nor I trusted him - we'd already seen his capacity for betrayal. Back in our time, Dusknoir cultivated and grew our trust. Then he broke it into hundreds of tiny little pieces.

You can't grow that trust again.

Strawberry trusted him, though. Even with our warnings, she still had faith in Dusknoir, no matter the Miasma, no matter his dark past. It was admirable, in some weird way.

With the Miasma hovering around Dusknoir and Strawberry's Shininess, we couldn't visit many establishments and cities. They didn't want us traveling into cities by ourselves either, considering how often that involves us getting kidnapped and imprisoned.

Of course, we couldn't avoid them entirely, so we would only enter once per day, hang around for an hour or so, then leave before we made our presence known.

The problem was that we didn't even know what we were supposed to be looking for. The Dimensional Scream wouldn't tell us anything, no matter how hard Sky tried. We couldn't find anything to do with Glacia or Vinia or anyone - the closest thing we got was Rax (Merla's brother) visiting the Captain of one of the Bases in the city we were in.

That was more or less useless. Sky kept on trying, but either the Dimensional Scream refused to cooperate or there was nothing to be found.

Then one day, Sky came to talk.

"I… what are we even doing, Naetle?" Sky finally asked. "What are we looking for?"

I wanted to answer, 'a way home' or 'to Team Ness' - because they had grown on me during the past few months. But Team Ness was almost half gone, including Vinia.

And for some reason, whenever I tried to answer 'a way home' I found myself unable to speak. It was as if something deep within me told me that there was something else, something more important than going back home.

Sky looked at my face. "Naetle, what's wrong?"

"It's… it feels like there's something important, something that we're missing," I finally said. "I can't help but feel like there's something I've forgotten."

Sky looked pensive. Then he came to an epiphany. "I know! Let me try using the Dimensional Scream to see what you've forgotten."

I nodded. Sky put his flippers on my shell before screwing up his concentration.

"Hold on… it's coming…" Sky started swaying, which meant the Dimensional Scream was at work again. I stabilized him and put him into a resting position.

Finally, Sky opened his eyes. "I… there were… blank patches?" He questioned.

"Blank patches?"

"Yeah, there were bits of the vision that were a bit fuzzy. We were talking to each other in the courtyard plaza, but I couldn't hear what we were saying."

I offered my shell to him. "Try again."

Sky grabbed onto my shell again, as his eyes went in and out of focus. "W...woah…" He started throwing up a little bit.

"Sky, are you okay?"

"Y-yeah… though, my head hurts a little bit," he confessed. "I tried to focus on what we were saying, but none of it came through."

I sat down next to him. "What do you think it means?"

"It probably means that the Dimensional Scream isn't as good as we thought it was."

That was a rather scary thought. The Dimensional Scream was easily the strongest skill we had in our repertoire. If the accuracy started going down, then it would be incredibly dangerous to rely on it.

"Though… I don't think so," Sky contradicted himself. "It _felt_ accurate, and I was able to hear everything else in the vision… just not what we were saying. It felt as if something was blocking me."

Blocking the Dimensional Scream?

"Do you think it has to do with our memory loss?" Sky asked. "It feels too coincidental that the memories we lost are the ones that we can't see with the Dimensional Scream."

I nodded. "Can you remind me what caused us to lose our memories again?"

"It was the 'Temporalists'," Sky reminded me. "They wanted to use me for some evil or weird purpose, and they changed what we remembered from that day."

I nodded, remembering. That was what we had eventually figured out. You don't just completely lose your memories of the events of the day. Sure you could forget it naturally, but not on the same day.

Or, at the very least, you felt time passing during that point. To us, it felt like the day had disappeared entirely, as if Dialga ripped it away.

"They probably altered more than our memories, then," Sky finally theorized. "They wanted to convert us to whatever cause they wanted and prevent us from doing what we wanted to do before then. They probably found a way to block us from thinking certain thoughts."

Magic - what a nightmare.

"Let's wait for a short while. I want to have one last go at the Dimensional Scream, okay?" Sky offered. "Does an hour sound good?"

"Of course," I immediately acquiesced. Sky started reclining on the tree.

As Sky started napping, I found myself frustrated. If it was true… if those Mismagius wanted to _block_ our memories… _block_ our thoughts… what conclusion did we come to in the time beforehand?

I desperately tried to remember that conversation Sky was talking about - any hint of it whatsoever. All I got for my troubles was an enlarged headache.

I continued like that for some time, trying to reach within my memories and experiences to find out what I had forgotten. But something was blocking me, preventing me from remembering. At some point, I decided to use my time more fruitfully by switching to move training

I've been trying to relearn Synthesis, something I used heavily back in our time. I've recovered most of my moves, and my strength is slowly returning. I could probably take on that illusion Groudon again if I felt like it.

Still, by far my strongest move was Energy Ball. I'm glad Kavol reinvented the TM for it - though, I'm a little worried for him.

The Breaking had ended a month ago, and only a week or two later did the news of it come through the usual channels. Not only did they manage to break through the Ring - which meant new settlements and opportunities for business Pokémon - but Captain Falcon was deposed as the Base leader.

That caused some worries - after all, what if the new leader was some awful megalomaniac that wanted to take over the world?!

After a month of nothing happening, though, most Pokémon had come to accept it. Most of them were now wondering if Captain Falcon just wasn't as good as he let himself out to be. The new leader - Rax, incidentally - was surprisingly well-intentioned, often meeting with the leaders of other bases to hash things out.

Either way, Kavol had been near the Breaking sight, since Vinia hadn't come back to teleport him (as far as we knew, anyway). Kavol's location was just as unknown to us as everyone else's was.

I flung Energy Ball after Energy Ball at a nearby boulder, trying to pulverize it. It broke eventually, but nowhere near the speed that I could do before.

"Ooh! Ooh!" I heard a voice behind me, and I turned to see someone enveloped in a small cloak, looking at me with curiosity. "Can you do two at once?"

"... what are you talking about?" I finally asked, tilting my head.

"Those Energy Balls," the Pokémon answered. "Can you do two at once?"

"... I don't know. I can try?" I offered.

"I want to see - go ahead and do it."

What a strange Pokémon.

I turned to the set of boulders I was working on and pulled on my energy reserves. Soon, an Energy whirled into existence in front of me, dazzling in the sunset.

"Okay, okay, now another one."

I pulled at my energy reserves again and brought out some more energy. It almost merged with the already formed Energy Ball, but with some effort, I managed to keep it away. Within a minute, I had managed to form a second, smaller Energy Ball.

"Nice job," the Pokémon praised.

I smiled. "Thanks. Sorry for asking, but… who are you?"

The cloaked Pokémon waved its hands. "Oh, you don't need to worry about me," it answered. "I'm just some traveling magician. I use some spells occasionally for my enjoyment but for the most part, I travel Naixe looking for entertainment."

"Really?" I raised my eyebrows.

"Well, why else would I stay in Naixe?" The Pokémon answered. "I only visit other continents when something interesting is happening. Otherwise, I stay in Naixe, since it's the only continent with this level of chaos and confusion."

This Pokémon was weird.

"Why are you training?" The Pokémon asked.

"I'm waiting for my friend to wake up. He's resting right now." I evaded anything that would clue the Pokémon into who Sky was.

"Are you going to go check on him?" The Pokémon asked.

I nodded. "Yes - and you don't have to follow me," I added. "We're just going to talk - nothing else."

"Oh? Do you mind if I listen in?" The Pokémon asked.

"Yes, I _do_ mind," I started walking away, checking over my shoulder to make sure that the Pokémon didn't follow.

Once I was out of their sight, I went in a couple of circles - just to lose them if they wanted to follow - before heading up to where Sky had been napping.

Sky was reclining against the tree, awake. When he saw me, he got up. "You're back?"

"Sorry," I apologized. "I just wanted to go through a little training while you were resting. I met someone, but I managed to get them off our trail."

No offense to whoever that Pokémon was, but we weren't on the good side of the law enforcement right now. That Pokémon, if they wished, could figure out that we're the outlaws posted on the bulletin boards, and then that Pokémon could rat us out.

…

I miss when we didn't have to worry if anyone saw us. When everyone was ready to help us.

When we weren't as alone as we are now.

"Right. Anyway, let's try another Dimensional Scream. I can probably manage one last one today before it gets too taxing."

"Ready when you are."

Sky placed his flippers on my shell and started concentrating.

"I… I think I'm getting something," he finally said. "Hold on."

Then he collapsed.

"Sky? SKY?!"

"Don't bother," a voice said behind me. I twisted to see the cloaked Pokémon, standing near another tree. "He's not going to wake up for a while."

"Did you do this?!" I charged a large Energy Ball in my mouth. "Who are you with?" I challenged. "Night? That possessor? The Temporalists?"

" _Them_?" The Pokémon snorted. "Do I _look_ like those amateur witches?"

There was silence.

"I'm still wearing the cloak, aren't I?"

The Pokémon tore off their cloak to reveal a strange horned Pokémon, pink and purple and adorned with rings, a small bottle attached to its back.

It pulled another ring from its side. "Say hello to the best magician in the world!"

I fired the Energy Ball.

The horned Pokémon sighed, exasperated. "Oh, it's come down to this, hasn't it?" The horned Pokémon waved its ring in front of it, threading the Energy Ball through it. With barely a shimmer, it disappeared.

"What the-"

Then I felt a sharp spike of energy impact my back, forcing me forward.

"Don't attack yourself, now," the horned Pokémon chided. "You have to lower _my_ health, not yours."

I glared at him, then turned to see the damage. The ground was broken behind me, and green wisps of energy floated in the air.

"You… teleported my attack?"

The horned Pokémon waved its rings around. Out of the rings came an apple, a bed (which broke on impact) and a square-shaped rock.

"Displaced it, to be more precise. Portals are fun," the horned Pokémon explained. "And they make great battle tools." It waved its rings again, and Sky tumbled out, still unconscious. I turned to see that he was no longer by my side. "Just saying, I'd _really_ appreciate it if we stopped fighting."

I gulped. "What are you-"

"If you're wondering, yes, I know that you're the outlaws. Though, the bulletins don't even say for what crime, which is boring. After all, the crime is half the fun. I've got seventeen different wanted posters based on different disguises. I feel like before the decade is done, I'll have twenty or so. What do you think?"

"I… that's… impressive?"

" _Exactly_." The horned Pokémon sounded pleased. "You'd have to put in a lot of effort to get that level of notoriety if you were a normal Pokémon. But back to business - it'll take some time for him to process everything?"

"Process everything?" I parroted.

"Yep - he had a particularly nasty vision right now. Knocked him straight into fainting - it'll take a while for him to process it and recover."

Then Sky got up, groaning.

"Never mind then."

"Sky!"

"Naetle? I… uh…" He groaned again. "Well, I figured out why we can't remember anything."

"That's not important! Are you okay?!"

"I… yeah? My head hurts, but that's… that's…" Sky threw up. "Never mind, I feel awful."

"I wouldn't use that power more than one or two times a day," the horned Pokémon advised. "If you haven't grown or aren't built to be powerful, your body probably won't be able to handle that much power. Not as much as you'd need to manipulate something as volatile as space-time, certainly. I'd know."

I shot the horned Pokémon a glare. "Do you mind?"

"He's right, though," Sky moaned. "I feel… like there are bubbles in my blood… and not the good kind, either…"

What _are_ the good kind of bubbles in the blood?

"I… anyway, it was as we thought." Sky continued. "I saw those Mismagius - the Temporalists - chanting something over our heads, and some weird purple stuff went into our heads. Then they were going to do more, but Dusknoir barged in and started destroying everything."

The horned Pokémon whistled. "Ooh… that's rough. I'm thinking mental blocks, personally."

Sky looked at them curiously. "What are mental blocks?"

"They're little invisible or 'locked' spaces in your mind. A skilled user of magic can create them and put them into your head, and stuff information they don't want you to know inside them. Whenever you come close to finding that information out, your mind will either divert its attention away from it or give you headaches."

"So… it locks away information inside our heads?"

The horned Pokémon nodded. "Unless someone uses a counter-spell to unlock the information, you won't be able to remember or even relearn what's locked. Of course, it _can_ be unlocked - that's the one thing it doesn't have over memory removal."

"How can we unlock it?" I asked. The horned Pokémon was a treasure trove of magical information. They'd probably know the best way to unlock the information.

"If you don't have access to magic, it's impossible - or at the very least, ill-advised," the horned Pokémon blithely said. "Magic has to be undone either through brute force or other magic, and you'd have to torture yourselves to near-insanity to break mental blocks through brute force."

"Can you break it?" Sky asked. "You look like a very strong magician."

"One of the best!" The horned Pokémon buffed its chest and inspected its hand. "There is no normal Pokémon that can top my magical skills. But as for you guys… well, I _can_ break it, and I _do_ like you guys… you know what? Entertain me."

"What?" I exclaimed incredulously.

"You remember that trick, right? Multiple Energy Balls?" At my nod, they continued. "I found that impressive - for a Turtwig. It's the same idea - impress me or reduce my current boredom."

Sky narrowed his eyes. "So we just have to entertain you?"

"Each. You _each_ have to entertain me, or I won't unlock either of your minds." The horned Pokémon tossed a ring up and down. "Oh, and by the way? I won't be impressed by the Multi-Energy Ball again, or anything less impressive than it."

"Multi-Energy Ball?" Sky looked at me, bemused.

"I'll show you later," I promised - though I was left with a conundrum. How do I impress this guy?

"Let me try first," Sky said, stepping forward. "I have an idea."

"Ooh, already?" The horned Pokémon waved. "Go on, then."

Sky breathed a large mass of bubbles into the air, which started hovering above the ground, shining in the air. He kept on breathing more and more bubbles into the air, almost obfuscating our vision.

"Is this all?" The horned Pokémon sounded bored. "Any Pokémon that knows Bubble can do this."

"Hold on, I'm not done yet," Sky promised. "Here comes the Mist!"

Sky breathed again, this time summoning a large mass of Mist into the air, which curled around the bubbles. One by one, the bubbles froze, lowering to the ground. Their surfaces turned from glassy and wet to opaque gems.

"Better, but nowhere near impressive enough to…" The horned Pokémon's criticisms died off as the bubbles started moving around, before coalescing and combining to form a completely new shape.

Like blocks, the frozen bubbles stacked on top of each other, forming a sculpture of a Pokémon - the horned Pokémon, to be precise. It stood ten feet into the air, creating the horned Pokémon's grinning likeness, with a hand in the thumbs-up state. Sky fell to the ground, heaving.

I bounded near to help him, but he turned his head to smile at me. "I'm… I'm good. That just took a lot of energy out of me." He turned to the horned Pokémon. "So? What do you think?"

The horned Pokémon's mouth opened slightly. "Wow. I - _wow_!" The horned Pokémon grinned, before waving its ring enthusiastically in the air, making the sculpture disappear without even a pop. "You _definitely_ pass!"

Sky smiled. "That's… that's great." He then collapsed.

"Sky!"

"Don't mind him - he's just exhausted," the horned Pokémon said. "Today's probably taken a lot out of him. Those 'Dimensional Screams' and that sculpture didn't look easy to make. He'll have to rest for the remainder of the day. And as for you…"

I blinked. "What about me?"

"I said _both_ of you have to impress me. That means you too, kid," he pointed at me.

"But Sky's injured!" I protested. "He's tired - I don't have time to entertain you!"

The horned Pokémon laughed. "Kid, I'll probably leave this place within an hour. If you don't want Sky's exhaustion to be in vain, you'd better impress me."

I ground my jaws together. "Do you have _any_ sense of empathy?"

"Oh, sure. But my sense of boredom is three hundred and fifty-six times stronger. Entertain or impress me." The horned Pokémon's eyes narrowed. "And for that irritating lip… you're going to have to outdo Sky."

"Wh-What?"

"Oh, and no more appeals to my vanity. I know I'm a great guy, but I'm not easy." The horned Pokémon reclined against a tree. "Hop to it - oh, and here's a new time limit. Entertain or impress me in five minutes, or I'll just straight up leave."

My mouth opened and closed like a fish. "You-you…"

"Don't badmouth me again, or I won't just let you off with some increased difficulty." The horned Pokémon tapped their wrist. "I recommend that you don't waste your time."

"You're kidding…" I whispered under my breath. That sculpture… it isn't something I can easily replicate. But I have to outdo it - and under five minutes!"

I shot some Energy Balls into the air making them collide into a beautiful shower of green energy. But the horned Pokémon looked less than impressed.

"Bor-ring," they taunted. "Don't you know anything else?"

Energy Ball was my go-to for offense - so, nothing else was that powerful or flashy.

Okay, okay… think creatively…

But my mind drew a blank. I have no idea how Sky came up with his ice sculpture idea - and I couldn't even come close.

"Clock's ticking, kid," the horned Pokémon taunted.

"I know! I'm just - just thinking!"

"You don't have _time_ to think, kid. And Sky didn't need it - guess you're not as good as he is."

I growled.

"Ooh, struck a nerve, didn't I?" The horned Pokémon taunted. "Confidence issues? Right now? Oh, when he wakes up and figures out that you made him fall unconscious for _nothing_ … oh, I bet he'll be _steaming_."

I turned to look a Sky's prone body. He… he tries his best, didn't he? All day, every day… and he succeeds. And I just fail.

"Half your time's up, kid," the horned Pokémon said. "If you don't have anything by then… well, you can say your farewells."

Right… if I don't want that, I have to entertain or impress this guy.

But none of my moves were particularly impressive, other than my Energy Ball. And that wouldn't work anymore, so…

So…

"You know, at this point, _anything_ would be better than what you have right now."

"Oh, _shut up!_ " In a small fit of rage, I lobbed a Leech Seed at them. Oh, sure, it wouldn't _do_ anything, but it's the thought that counts. And anything would be better than nothing right now.

The horned Pokémon easily swayed out of the way of the Leech Seed. "Pathetic." The Leech Seed attached to the tree behind the horned Pokémon, quickly sucking up its nutrients. Within seconds, a large growth had appeared from it.

Then, miraculously, an idea sprung to mind. Something so monumentally stupid, it might work.

Better than everything else at this point.

I started firing more Leech Seeds, at every tree in the clearing we were in. Within thirty seconds, I had a ring of Leech Seeds covering the trees in the clearing.

"Clock's ticking, kid - you only have a minute left."

I have to make this count. It's now or never.

I fired an Energy Ball at one of the Leech Seeds, which enveloped it completely, then there was a large shirting, as the growth grew even farther out.

I then started firing Energy Ball after Energy Ball into the Leech Seeds, making them grow like crazy. If I were stronger, I would be replacing this with Frenzy Plant, but for now, I have to make do.

The Leech Seed's new vines started growing all across the clearing, traveling through the air.

"You have thirty seconds," the horned Pokémon said.

No time for rest.

I fired an almost continuous stream of Energy Balls at the growths, making them stretch wildly across the clearing.

Then the first two connected.

Then another. And another.

A large web of vines was forming from the Leech Seeds, fueled by my Energy Balls. The connections formed, thick and strong.

With a final snap, the web formed completely.

"And… done!" The horned Pokémon looked at the web critically. "So… what do you have here."

It was a little hard to hear them, though, because I was swaying in place. Making the web took an incredible amount of energy, and I was close to fainting at that point.

The horned Pokémon walked in the web's shadow, surveying it. "Nice craftsmanship… for a patch job, that is. You get points for effort, this is something I'd only expect a fully-evolved Grass-type to make. It's not that good-looking, though."

The horned Pokémon reached up and grabbed one of the vines, before attempting to pull it down. Then it grunted, as the web resisted.

"Elastic, huh? That's a strange property… I wonder…" The horned Pokémon floated up in the air, through one of the holes in the web, and hovered up high in the center of the web. Then the horned Pokémon dropped like a stone.

My mouth gaped as the horned Pokémon started bouncing on the web.

"YEAH!" The horned Pokémon cheered. "Oh, this is _nice_! I can't believe it - you made a trampoline!"

"A… what?" I managed to get out before I started swaying again.

"It's been _millennia_ since I've been able to go on one of these! Ever since my old one broke a few thousand years ago, it's been impossible to get another!"

"I'm… glad?" I said, but the horned Pokémon wasn't listening to me, and instead was bouncing enthusiastically on the web.

"Oh, man!" The horned Pokémon kept on bouncing. Then it fell through one of the larger holes.

For a second I thought that they were going to go _splat_ on the ground, but then the horned Pokémon started spinning around one of the horizontal vines.

"Wait a second… this is… " the horned Pokémon started swinging from vine to vine, arms pumping hard. "There are monkey bars, too!"

"What are 'monkey bars'?" I asked the horned Pokémon, who was busy traveling from vine-to-vine using its arms.

"They're an old human construction, used for playing!" The horned Pokémon answered, before flinging itself back onto the top of the web.

"I wonder…" Then the horned Pokémon swung to the top of the web, before lounging.

"Nice! It's a hammock, too!"

"Did… did I pass?" I couldn't help but interrupt.

"Oh, that. Yeah, you passed." The horned Pokémon said, relaxing in the sunlight. "I'm taking off some points since I had to figure out how to use this by myself, but it has so many uses that it doesn't even matter. I'm in half a mind to see if I can use one of the vines as a tightrope, personally."

Then the horned Pokémon rolled off the web, before making it disappear with a wave of its rings. "But before I get around to playing on my new toy… we made a deal, right?"

I sighed in relief. "Y-yes… remove the mental block, would you? Please?"

The horned Pokémon nodded. "Drag Sky over here, kid. I have to help him, too."

"Right." I heaved Sky's unconscious body on top of my shell, before walking him over to where the horned Pokémon was standing.

The horned Pokémon's hands started glowing a mystical lavender. "Hold him still, would you? This will give him a bit of a shock."

"'Bit of a shock'?" I questioned. "What do you-"

The horned Pokémon placed their hands on Sky. Sky glowed lavender for a second, convulsing, then returned to normal.

"Alright, the mental block on him is gone. You're next." The horned Pokémon puts their hands on me.

Something strange in my head clicked, as strange electricity arced through me. I felt like something had changed… though, I don't know what.

"Alright, it's done. Do you remember anything? Is there some realization you're going to come to right now?"

"... no?"

"They went for memory erasure first, then." The horned Pokémon stretched. "Well, that's that. Once your friend has recovered enough for another Dimensional Scream, have him use to find out what they removed from your memories. There won't be anything stopping you now."

After I rested Sky against a tree, I bowed. "Thank you… um… what's your name?"

The horned Pokémon rubbed the back of its head. "The name's Hoopa. Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too, Hoopa." Hoopa… that name sounds familiar, for some odd reason.

"Yeah…" Hoopa then groaned. "Okay, look. I feel a little guilty, so I'm going to stick around for a little while longer. If you want me to summon anything, just ask."

"Guilty?" My eyes narrowed. "You _did_ remove the block, right?"

"No, it's gone, permanently," Hoopa affirmed. "No, it's more like I'm guilty because I short-changed you."

"Huh?"

"Look - actually think about what we got out of the deal. You guys got a mental block removed." Hoopa waved its hands. "Big whoop - any novice magician could have done it. All you need is access to magic and a basic spell-breaking technique, and it's gone."

"... really?"

"Yup. In this day and age, it's useful since there aren't many magic users around, but back when using magic was something you could go and study, you would only need, eh, around twenty Poké or so in today's currency to get some broke magician to unblock it."

"You're… you're joking, right?"

"It was a great way to prank someone - make them unable to conceptualize the ideas of keys to their house. I got a lot of mileage from its adaptability. Nowadays, since magic is a lot rarer, it's more dangerous than it used to be."

Hoopa stretched. "Regardless, that took me pretty much no effort to do. I could do it in my sleep if I wanted. You guys, meanwhile, nearly broke yourselves trying to please me. Which is flattering, really, but unequal. I can't help but feel a little guilty."

I remained silent for a second. "But it's more important to us," I finally said. "To have our memories back, than for you to have an ice sculpture and that web."

"That's debatable," Hoopa countered. "I've lived for many, many millennia. I'll probably get more mileage out of those two gifts than you will out of your memories. Unless those memories and concepts were insanely important, it's even more of an inequitable trade."

I said nothing.

"So here's the deal. I'm going to stay around for an hour. While I'm here, feel free to use my services however you wish."

"Services?"

"Magic and portals. Those are my main two powers - though I do have a few others. If you were to ask me, I would say my portals are easily the most useful. Magic is gimmicky - once, I cursed a whole religion or cult or something, I don't know, to have mild misfortune due to eating a pastry. They deserved it too since one of their disciples thought it funny to throw one at my face as I was walking by. Catharsis, you know? That reminds me of the time that-"

"Okay," I coughed, interrupting Hoopa's tirade. "What can your portals do?" I asked.

"I'm glad you asked!" Hoopa smiled. "My portals can summon anything! Well, as long as it isn't Palkia or anything he owns - he gets a little uppity when you mess with space, especially if it's _his_ space."

I snorted. "Tell me about it."

Hoopa's eyes widened. "Ooh, you've met with Palkia?"

I nodded. "It was around a year ago - well, a few thousand years if you factor in time travel."

"Really? Was it around the time of the explosion?"

"The what?"

"The explosion in Dark Crater - you know, the one that wiped Darkrai, Cresselia, and the two heroes of time off the face of the earth?"

…

"Hey, what's with that face?"

"I...I'm sorry, can you please repeat that?"

"The explosion?" Hoopa scratched its head.

"Y-yeah."

"Well, back right after those two heroes saved time itself - I wonder what it would be like to meet them - they fought against Darkrai, who was the real perpetrator… I think. I don't know - my memories from back then are a little hazy. Either way, according to Palkia, during their battle with Darkrai, there was this _big_ explosion of space-time."

"And?"

"And they all disappeared. Gone from the face of the world. Palkia couldn't summon them, and neither could I. Nobody knows what happened there."

"Uh… yeah. It was around that time," I answered. "It was at that point that I time-traveled to this time."

"Ah - that makes sense. Culture shock?"

I nodded.

"Times were simpler, back then. All the continents had resources, conflicts could be resolved peacefully… it was easier." Hoopa stretched. "Here in Naixe, though, it's a lot harder. Mystery Dungeons pop up everywhere, and the Rings are a pain to circumvent. It's a lot harder - more chaotic, though, and that's half the fun."

Hoopa's eyes then glowed. "Hm… yeah, it just as I thought."

"Huh?"

"You time-traveled, right? That explains the distortion of space around you."

"Yeah - it's stopping us from evolving."

"I was wondering why you guys haven't evolved yet. You guys have more than passed the qualifications for evolution, yet you don't have Everstones." Hoopa twirled one of its rings. "Do you want me to fix that for you?"

My eyes widened. "You can do that?!"

"Oh, yeah, sure. It'll be a little tricky, though… hold your breath, would you? Don't want to have all the air in your lungs disappear."

I held my breath.

Hoopa shook one of its rings and pointed its hand at me. There was a bright flash of light, and I felt some twisting and turning on my skin. Then something in me shifted, and I felt a large surge of energy traveling through me.

"Wooh!" Hoopa exhaled. "Man, that was tiring!" Hoopa stretched a bit more.

I inspected my body. I had grown - instead of the Turtwig I always was, I was now a Grotle, thick legs and all. I walked around a little bit, noting that my speed had drastically gone down.

"I'm… slower?" My voice had grown deeper and thicker, almost gravely now. I wonder how everyone would react.

"Yeah, that's the tradeoff. On the other hand, every single one of your other abilities has now dramatically grown. Try making two Energy Balls again."

I acquiesced and formed an Energy Ball with incredible ease. Forming a second one required more effort, but I managed within a second or two.

Hoopa was smiling. "Go for three or four - I want to see how many you can handle."

"Sure," I acquiesced. It took me roughly fifteen seconds or so, and a lot more strain, but I managed to form a third Energy Ball, which floated alongside the other two.

Then I tried to make a fourth one. But no matter how hard I pushed, and how hard I strained, a fourth Energy Ball wouldn't come into existence.

Eventually, tired, I dissipated the three Energy Balls.

"So three's your limit, huh?" Hoopa shrugged. "Anyway, do you want me to get rid of the distortion around Sky as well?"

I shook my head. "I think we should get permission from him first."

"Permission, shmermission, whatever!" Hoopa scoffed.

"That, and he'll probably panic and hurt himself if he finds himself to be a Prinplup when he wakes up."

"Fine, we'll wait. Though, I'll leave if he doesn't wake up in an hour. Anything else you want?"

"Um… not personally." An idea struck me. "My friends might, though!"

Hoopa's mouth upturned unpleasantly. "Friends?"

"Yeah - I don't think Sky or I need anything, but they might."

"Alright, I'll give your friends one portal. I'm not willing to give much more than that, though. Who are your - never mind, I remember. The Inverted Dusknoir and Shiny Vanillite, from the poster, right?"

Hoopa waved its rings in the air, and Strawberry and Dusknoir shimmered into existence.

Strawberry's eyes looked bewildered, before looking around. "D-Dusknoir? Where are we…"

Dusknoir didn't answer. He hadn't been talking since early that morning, as if something had stolen his tongue. I had tasked Strawberry with taking care of him. Miasma swirled around him, thicker than it had ever been before.

"Alright, that Dusknoir doesn't get the wish," Hoopa decreed. "Girl, what do you want me to get you?"

"H-huh?" Strawberry asked, bemused.

"Hoopa, you're confusing her," I admonished. "Strawberry, Hoopa can summon things from across the universe and bring them here."

Strawberry turned to look at me. "... Who are you?"

Oh, yeah.

"It's me, Naetle," I answered, at which Strawberry's eyes widened. "I finally evolved, thanks to Hoopa's help."

Strawberry just gaped, looking between me, Sky, and Hoopa.

"You - I - huh?"

Hoopa groaned. "Oh, this is going to take forever."

Finally, something clicked in Strawberry's mind. "Wait… Hoopa?!"

"Oh? Someone recognizes me?" Hoopa stretched. "It's been a while since someone recognized me as a Mythical."

My eyes widened. "You're a Mythical?"

"Hoopa… Hoopa once stole a palace full of treasure," Strawberry recounted. "It's said that Hoopa's treasures are among the most valuable of the world."

"They _are_ the most valuable - not 'among'," Hoopa corrected. "If there are any treasures that can stand among mine, let me know and I'll take it right now."

Strawberry, though, looked hopeful. "Can you bring my brother here?"

Hoopa scratched its head. "Your brother?"

"We got separated when we teleported," Strawberry slowly explained. "He… he must be really worried right now."

Hoopa shrugged. "Eh, why not?" Hoopa waved its ring.

With a small shimmer of light, Gel appeared… and in awful condition. Water dribbled from small wounds in his frozen body. His eyes were frenetic and darting around everywhere.

"Gel!" Strawberry cried, before rushing toward him.

"WH-WHERE AM I?!" Gel shouted, before immediately covering his back with a tree. He stared at us, semi-uncomprehendingly.

"G-Gel?"

Strawberry's voice snapped him out of it. He looked down at Strawberry questioningly. "S-Strawberry… ?"

"Are- are you okay?!" Strawberry asked, looking at his injuries. "What happened to you?"

"You… are you really Strawberry?" Gel asked, almost not daring himself to believe it.

"Yes!" Strawberry nodded.

"But - huh? How?" Then Gel's eyes latched on to Hoopa. "Wait… you're Hoopa!"

"How many of you are going to ask me that?"

"You - you summoned me here. To Naixe." A note of questioning optimism entered Gel's voice. "You - why?"

"Strawberry asked me to," Hoopa answered. "I'm in a summoning mood, and Strawberry wanted to be reunited with her brother. So I reunited her with you." It shrugged. "Not much more to it than that."

"O-Okay?" Gel questioned. "I… is this an illusion the Ahriman is showing me, or-"

"No, this isn't an illusion," I answered. Gel turned to me.

"Who are you?"

"Naetle - remember the little Turtwig? I evolved."

Gel looked around. "That's Sky… and that's Dusknoir… holy… this isn't an illusion!"

"Yes, I-"

Hoopa didn't get to finish, though, because Gel latched onto Strawberry and began sobbing.

"N-Never leave me again…I-I don't want to lose you, too!" Strawberry leaned into Gel's hug.

"Sweet," Hoopa drawled. "But if that's all… could you wake up Sky? I'm getting bored now, and I don't feel like doing much more."

"Hoopa, I-"

"Never mind, I'll do it myself," Hoopa groused. It walked up to Sky and started shaking him. "Get up - I'm getting bored."

Sky's eyes fluttered open. "I… huh?"

"Sky, do you want to evolve?"

"I… did we…?"

"Yes, you passed, the block is gone, _do you want to evolve_?"

"... huh?"

"Sky, Hoopa can allow us to evolve," I explained. "They can get rid of the Dimensional Distortion that Luminous Spring told us about."

"I… okay?"

"Good enough for me." Hoopa started shaking its ring again and pointed another hand at Sky. With a large flash of light, Sky's form started glowing, before it grew to a larger size.

Within seconds, a Prinplup stood in Sky's place.

"I… huh?" Sky sounded bewildered. "What just…"

"Consider it additional payment for that trick," Hoopa answered. "And as for me, I'm leaving."

"Wait!"

Gel had was now cradling Strawberry in his arms, as if he was a parent. She looked rather content in the position as well.

Gel looked straight at Hoopa. "There's one last thing I need you to do."

"Nope!" Hoopa answered happily. "I'm out of wishes for today. No more, no way!"

"But Glacia will die if you don't bring her here."

There was an empty, horrifying silence at that.

"W-What?" I managed to stutter.

"Glacia is in danger," Gel repeated. "If you don't want her to die, bring her here."

"Look, 'Gel', I don't know who this Glacia is, but-"

"Hoopa, please!" I looked at her, eyes pleading.

Hoopa looked back at me, before sighing. "Ugh - fine."

With a wave of a ring, Hoopa disappeared - and in its place, a tattered Inverted Eevee appeared, Miasma swirling around.

Glacia.

* * *

(Vinia, a Week Afterward)

Catal had been a treasure trove of information, once we managed to pierce his mental armor.

Not literally, mind you - we still needed him alive, after all. But through a little creativity, copious amounts of fire, and a stolen Ring Target, we managed to pry into Catal's mind and pull out the information we needed.

HUMANITY'S headquarters - my mother's location. It was in Ring 8, and Catal knew the coordinates, as well as the guards' shifts.

At this point, it wasn't too difficult to figure out what we had to do.

Alice had argued against it, saying we needed more numbers or more than just what Catal knew. In Catal's memories, there had been a few hundred members of HUMANITY recorded, collected over thirty years or so. That many, against the four of us?

We wouldn't stand a chance with a frontal assault - but we couldn't let the opportunity go to waste either. There was no telling when they would decide to move. Catal was sure they'd stay in the current headquarters for another month or so, but beyond that, he knew nothing.

We decided to, at the very least, get near the headquarters, to see what we were up against. Alice acquiesced to that (though, she still warned against getting too close).

Over the past couple of weeks, we had been traveling to Ring 8, to where Catal said the entrance to HUMANITY was. Unfortunately, the closest place to it I could teleport to was Jeden Cty, and it was still a few weeks away from there

So, resigning ourselves to more traveling, we went forward. And, after a few _more_ weeks of monotonous journeying (we bound and carried Catal with us in a box so he couldn't warn Nyx), we arrived.

Alice stretched as we entered Ring 8. "Oh, it's nice to be back,"

"You've been here before?"

"Yeah, once or twice on my travels. There was a challenging chasm that I had to cross - I mean, it wasn't a challenge for _me_ , because I always had the option of just floating across the gap."

Alice continued rambling as Peng paid polite attention. Ken, meanwhile, groaned, hefting the box where we kept Catal prisoner in.

"Vinia, can you and Alice look into his mind again?" Ken asked. "I want to know how much longer I'm going to have to carry this guy."

"No need," I argued. "HUMANITY'S headquarters is on the side of the chasm - it's the only thing big enough to keep them hidden.

"Okay, but what if - and hear me out on this one - they're in some town, hiding away. You know, not in the side of a dangerous cliff, where we - and they - could die."

Alice scoffed. "And how would they be able to hide it? Supposedly, only Nyx can hide her Inversion… well, her and my brother,"

"Oh, yeah, your brother can do that, too." Ken scratched his head. "Hey, do you-"

Alice shot him a look. "Don't you _dare_ suggest my _other_ brother is a part of HUMANITY," she said, a hint of menace in her tone. "My brother is better than that - she probably forced the secret out of him at some point or figured it out on her own."

"That wasn't what I was going to suggest," Ken defended.

"Then what _were_ you going to suggest?"

"I… well, your brother can make himself Inverted, right?" Ken argued. "Why don't you ask him to come and help us? He can probably help us infiltrate, right?"

Alice was slowly nodding. "Hey… yeah, that sounds like a good idea," she finally. "Tam will help us - he's not like other Inverted Pokémon."

Alice turned to me. "Vinia, can you go to Meliafor City and go find him?"

I sighed, before nodding. "Alright - will you guys stay here while I go?"

They nodded before sitting down. Ken chopped the back of Catal's head and beckoned for me to go.

"Well, see you guys soon. Hopefully, it won't take more than an hour."

With that, I teleported to Meliafor City, a small city mother had taken me to when I was five or so. Probably on some nefarious business, no doubt, but I was too concerned with my crayons to care.

Arriving at the town square, I asked for directions to the Base.

After ten minutes of navigation, I managed to find my way to the Base, a comparatively smaller building than Jeden City's. With caution, I zipped my way inside.

Inside I found an angry mob, howling and raging.

"WHERE ARE THEY?!" One mothering Cherrim, holding a nervous Cherubi girl in her hands, howled. "WHERE ARE THE VENTURERS?!"

"Excuse me," I asked a nearby Purugly, keeping my voice low. "Why is everyone so…?"

The Purugly scowled. "They've left - they've all left. Not a single one is here."

"What do you…"

"The Venturers are all gone, Kirlia. They've been gone for the past few days."

I scratched my head. "What do you mean, 'gone'?"

"I don't know," they muttered. "All I know is that my cousin has been stuck in a Mystery Dungeon for, I don't know, a week? Two? I also know that the Venturers who were supposed to rescue him _aren't here_!" That last part was said with a hiss.

"Wait, so the Base has been empty for the last few days?"

The Purugly nodded. "It's not a Breaking - the city officials would tell us if it was a Breaking. No, this - it's something else. Everyone - _everyone_ \- is gone." The Purugly huffed. "And it's not just them - the ones in Jeden and Ghelian and all the other Bases around this region are empty. Some Pokémon have tried to go into the Dungeons to rescue their loved ones themselves."

I winced.

"Yeah, now they're missing, too."

"I… see."

"Honestly, I've been coming here every day, just waiting for them to come back. That Cherrim - she's been camping out here. Her son's been abducted." The Purugly scowled. "When the Venturers return, I'll give them a piece of my mind."

At that point, I exited the building. There was no point in staying - Tam wasn't going to be here if no one else was. And I was, naturally, suspecting HUMANITY's responsible for this. After all, they had their fingers in every pot at this point. It wouldn't be a stretch to imagine this being their doing.

Though… I can't imagine _why,_ exactly. This doesn't seem like something very intelligent for them to do, given the danger it poses to the continuation of the conspiracy.

With a small flash of light, I teleported back to where we had arrived at, in Ring 8. Alice, Peng, and Ken were there waiting for me, sitting a little impatiently.

"Where is he?" Alice asked right off the bat, stepping forward.

"Missing," I answered simply. "Along with everyone else in the Base."

"Missing?" Bemused, Alice raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean, 'missing'?"

"He's not there - and none of the other Venturers are there either. None of the Venturers were at the base." Alice was silent, concern radiating from her eyes.

"... do you suspect foul play?" Peng asked.

I nodded. "HUMANITY, most likely."

I briefly considered asking Catal if he had any information on it before deciding not to. Even with the Ring Target, Catal was still incredibly tough to crack. It took a few days to get the information we needed out of him after repeated attempts.

We didn't get all the information we needed, too. I tried getting information about the leader of HUMANITY - Grandfather - but I couldn't find it anywhere, no matter how hard I tried. It just wasn't in his mind, even though it was clear he knew who the boss was.

There was other 'hidden' information like that. All we had managed to get was the general location of the base and guard details. Useful, definitely - but that left some important holes in our infiltration plan.

Alice sighed with a weary look on her face, before looking at me, her face hardening. "Once we have our confrontation with Night and Nyx, we should ask them about the Venturers. I don't want Tam to be in danger from HUMANITY. Or I'll make them _suffer_." The look on her face promised pain to all those who angered her - especially those that took her brother Tam.

Alice was trying to 'mellow out' and not be so bombastic and rude. It was a slow process, but at least she isn't flying off the handle. It turns into sadism instead.

"Alice, how much longer until we get to the chasm?" Ken asked, hefting Catal's box on his shoulder.

"It's an hour or two from here, " she answered promptly. "We could make it to the chasm before dusk." Considering the time was well after noon, that was a promising sign.

"Let's get a bit closer to the headquarters, then." I finally decided. "We'll enter tomorrow morning."

"Excuse me," a foreign voice, a little rough, said. We turned to find a Grovyle, looking fairly perturbed at us. He had walked out of the underbrush.

"...hello?" Peng asked. "... who are you?"

"My name is unimportant," the Grovyle brusquely said. "I'm just warning you that you shouldn't stay near here. It's dangerous near here."

Alice laughed hollowly. "If you're talking about the chasm, don't worry. I've crossed it before, and it isn't too difficult to circumvent."

"Still, I suggest you steer clear of the chasm," the Grovyle insisted. "Danger can strike out of nowhere. It's best to be on your guard, and overconfidence can be your downfall."

"Oh, and I suppose that it's safe for you," Alice challenged, walking right up to the Grovyle. "What makes you think you can boss us around?"

The Grovyle gritted his teeth. I could feel the frustration wafting off him.

"Alice, please, can you-"

"Give us one good reason as to why you're so qualified to be around here, and we aren't." Alice ignored Peng.

The Grovyle attempted to calm down. "Ma'am - what's your name?"

"Alice."

"Alice, this area is surrounded by traffickers and other such thieves. It's in your best interest to stay away from here, so you and your cargo stay safe." The Grovyle gestured to the box on Ken's shoulders, which he nervously fidgeted with.

"I don't think so," Alice instead said. "I bet you think you're stronger than we are since you're so concerned about _us_." She smirked. "So let's have a battle. If I win, you leave. And if you win… eh, that won't happen, but-"

"You'll leave," the Grovyle completed, before falling into a battle stance.

Alice readied her arms. "Three… two… one… now-"

That was all she managed to get before the Grovyle lunged at her with incredible speeds. He landed a long barrage of Leaf Blades on her, before throwing her thirty feet, smashing her against a tree. He then dug a hole into the ground with astonishing speed, disappearing within seconds.

Alice slowly picked herself up. "Urgh… what hit me-"

Then the Grovyle appeared right in front of her, surrounded by Ground-type energy. Slamming into Alice, he sent all of the Ground-type energy into her, knocking her out cold. Alice slumped to the ground, the three of us wide-eyed. Ken practically fell over, and the box carrying Catal tumbled out of his hands.

The Grovyle sheathed his blades. "Now do you understand what I mean?" He asked. "She couldn't protect herself - what makes you think you will?"

Peng gulped. "O-Okay," she whispered, before collecting herself. "We're - we're going to leave now. We'll come back in a week or two - thank you for warning us, sir."

The Grovyle nodded.

Peng walked up to me. "Let's go," she said.

"But Peng, we-"

"Use your head, Vinia," Peng replied before I could get anywhere. She tapped her head with one of her fins. "We're too weak - what if those traffickers come after us?"

 _We_ were the ones coming for the traffickers (and whatever else HUMANITY did). "Peng, we have to-"

"Vinia, _use your head_." She repeated, tapping her head some more, a little harder this time. "Stop and _think_ about it. This Grovyle could beat us - what about any others?"

The Grovyle nodded in agreement, though he was tapping his foot impatiently. "Could you please hurry this up? I have to be somewhere."

"Remember, Vinia - use your head." She tapped her head one last time.

Use my head, use my head, couldn't Peng say anything… else…

I'm an idiot.

Using my psychic powers, I quickly established a telepathic connection with Peng, pursing my lips as to be in thought.

" _Took you long enough_ ," she said briskly.

" _Sorry,_ " I replied. " _But now we can talk so he can't hear - that's what you wanted, right?_ "

" _Yeah. He's too dangerous for us to take on, so we have to leave. Teleport us away, and we'll go to the headquarters in a different direction._ "

So we're just going to avoid the conflict with Grovyle, then.

I gave a slightly imperceptible nod. "I suppose you're right, Peng," I said, a little theatrically. "If Alice couldn't beat him… well, there's no point in us even trying."

"Vinia, we shouldn't-" Ken tried to interrupt.

" _Ken, we're going to teleport to the Base,_ " I communicated through telepathy. " _Don't worry_."

Ken fell silent.

Peng picked up Alice's prone body. "Thank you for going through all this trouble, sir," Peng addressed. "We'll be taking our leave now."

Grovyle nodded, again, before walking to Peng and helping her with Alice's body. "Tell her that I must apologize for any damage I've caused her," he said. "I may have been a little rough with her."

"You're telling me," Pend said, laughing a little.

The Grovyle then picked up the box that held Catal inside of it and handed it over to Ken. "Make sure to keep yourselves safe," he said, dropping it onto Ken's shoulders. Ken buckled for a little bit, before steadying. He then gave the Grovyle a thumbs up.

"Thanks for the help," Ken said. He hoisted it up a little.

Grovyle, though, frowned a little bit. "Excuse me for asking… but what do you hold in there?"

Ken froze. "I - why are you asking?" Ken said, evading the question.

"No reason." Judging from the sharpness in Grovyle's eyes, there _was_ a reason - one he wasn't telling us.

"There… are… rocks?"

Let it never be said that Ken was a fantastic liar.

Grovyle's eyes narrowed further.

"We'd best be going," Peng said, in the ensuing silence. "We should be leaving soon. Vinia, Teleport us away."

I nodded. Peng and Ken both walked up to me, each carrying their respective loads.

I waved to the Grovyle. "Goodbye, sir."

I then walked up to Peng and Ken, ready to teleport them away.

 _SHWING!_

There was a sharp slicing sound in the air, like a knife hitting the top of a stone cutting board. The side of the box slid off, and the bound Catal tumbled out.

The four of us just stared at each other. The Grovyle's arm blades were unsheathed, as he slowly looked between us and Catal.

Then, in a low voice, Grovyle began to speak. "So, care to explain this?" He said, raising his arms in his battle stance.

"We're… we're not traffickers if that's what you're thinking," Peng explained. "He's just… um…"

Peng, now's not the time to flounder!

"Vinia, now!"

That was all the signal I needed. I rushed toward Peng and Ken and managed to get a grip on them.

 _SMACK!_

I felt some rather sharp and painful hit my back. Then I felt a strange sense of weightlessness as I flew through the air, launched by Grovyle's powerful attack.

I slammed into the same tree Alice had, sliding down it and slumping to the ground. Fighting for my consciousness, I slowly opened my eyes.

Grovyle was - for the lack of a better word - disassembling Peng and Ken, smashing his blades painfully into every spare space of flesh he could find. And unlike with Alice, he wasn't pulling any punches. Soon, Peng and Ken were groaning on the ground, just like I was.

Once we were all down, Grovyle walked up to Catal. With a quick succession of slashes, he destroyed the ropes we had bound him with.

Catal slowly got up, before looking at Grovyle. "Thank you, kind sir," he thanked, before running away. I managed to see one last vicious smirk, outside of the view of the Grovyle, before he escaped our sights.

I got up, aching. "This… you…" I desperately wanted to warn the Grovyle about Catal's dangers - but I only found my words coming out in patchwork.

Grovyle turned to me. "You can't fight," he deadpanned. "None of you can. I can't help but wonder at what cowardly tactics you use to kidnap Pokémon."

I growled. This _idiotic_ Grovyle just destroyed our chances of infiltrating HUMANITY'S base and was now calling us cowards. I charged several Heal Pulses and slammed them into Ken. Soon, he managed to get up.

"Ugh… Vinia, what-"

"Battle time," I instead said looking squarely at Grovyle. "Go for-"

"Enough talk," Grovyle said, before jumping forward at startling speeds. This time, though, I was somewhat ready for him.

Inches before his blades slashed, I Teleported away, appearing near Ken. I grabbed him, and before Grovyle sped back to us, I Teleported him into the air, several stories above the battleground. Soon we were in free fall.

"Vinia, what are you-"

"Ken, Flame Charge and Bulk Up," I interrupted. "He's too strong for you to take on normally so you have to strengthen yourself as much as possible."

"Vinia, what do you-"

"Don't argue, Ken," I snapped. As we fell to the ground, where Grovyle was waiting for us. "Just do it. I'll distract him."

Ken fell silent, the wind rushing his feathers.

"Alright. Good luck," he finally said.

With a small crash, we impacted the earth. Grovyle was immediately on us, swinging his arms blades around with frightening precision. Ken immediately fled the battlefield for the trees.

Grovyle snorted, before turning to me. "Stay still, would you? I'll make this painless."

I scoffed. "Dream on, big shot." I enveloped my arms in psychic energy, which barely managed to stop a slash from the Grovyle from coming through.

The battle went on, and not in my favor. Grovyle kept on slashing me, over and over again. Each time, I even _thought_ about counterattacking, Grovyle would unleash a combination of blows on me, sending me flying through the air. He began forcing me to Teleport just to keep my distance.

Soon, I was breathing heavily as Grovyle kept going.

"You're… you're a monster!" I gasped, feeling the pain burn up and down my legs and into my mind.

Grovyle didn't say anything to me. Instead, he looked at me with an air of condescension and pity.

I growled, feeling angrier by the second.

Then Grovyle frowned as he sniffed the air.

I sniffed the air, and my scowl morphed into a smile.

Smoke.

A small ring of fire appeared in the trees around us, surrounding the area we were in with a warm orange glow. Grovyle turned around, looking at it all with a scrutinizing eye.

Then his eyes widened before he barely managed to dodge a flying kick from Ken.

"I'M BACK!" He crowed, before smashing his legs into Grovyle, sending him flying forward.

Grovyle gritted his teeth, before attempting to slash back at Ken. Ken, though, was faster than Grovyle was and wove out of the way of the strike before landing another series of kicks on him. Grovyle slid backward as Ken started rushing him again.

While the two were fighting, I immediately went to work on healing Peng. With another series of Heal Pulses, I managed to bring her back to consciousness. As she was getting up, I started working on Alice. We were going to need all the help we could get.

Once I finished up with Alice and she was up again, I turned to the battle. Then my eyes widened.

The tables had turned, _again_. Grovyle was landing blow after blow on Ken - and while Ken was now faster than Grovyle was, Grovyle's dodging skills were too fast for Ken to correct his aim.

Soon, the exhaustion of maintaining his speed began to wear down on Ken. Grovyle, meanwhile, looked no further worse for the wear.

"Vinia, work with me," Alice snapped, looking straight at Grovyle. "I'm going to go in - and when I do, find the opportunity to lock him down."

And before I could respond, Alice jumped into the fray - and while she was nowhere near as fast as the other two were, she was managing to force Grovyle into a corner, using her poisonous Napalms as an environmental hazard Grovyle couldn't Dig into.

What did Alice mean by 'locking him down', though?

Soon, we had backed Grovyle into a corner - though now he was fighting doubly hard, managing to whittle the two of them down even though he was showing signs of flagging. He couldn't retreat into the trees or the ground either, now that Ken's ring of fire and Alice's Napalm blocked him.

"Vinia, now!"

Now what?!

Suddenly, Grovyle froze in place, hands held out in an awkward position. I saw Alice falling to the ground as well, though she was concentrating heavily.

"Vinia… Vinia?!"

"What do you want me to do?!"

"Use Imprison!"

It hit me like a slap in the face. Of _course_ she wanted me to use the trapping move.

Throwing my hands out, I called on my psychic powers and trapped Grovyle further in the psychic prison. Soon, Grovyle was completely frozen in place, as our combined efforts managed to stop him from escaping.

Ken took the advantage quickly. Now that Grovyle couldn't retaliate, it was much easier for Ken to land blows. Oh, sure, Grovyle was freed every time Ken landed another blow, but since Alice and I could instantly put another Imprison on him, he couldn't properly fight back.

Fiery blow after blow landed on Grovyle's flesh, as Ken's attacks continued. Grovyle's eyes widened, as his eyes started swimming in pain.

I started feeling a little guilty - Grovyle didn't deserve all this. He was just some concerned Pokémon - this was all a big misunderstanding. Now that my rage was falling away, I slowly stopped wanting to continue this battle.

But when I accidentally weakened my Imprison as a result, Grovyle's struggles multiplied, and I steeled myself. Ken wouldn't hurt him too badly, and it was more pressing for Grovyle to no longer be a threat. I reinvigorated the Imprisons and kept on waiting for Grovyle to fall to the pain.

Then I would be able to heal him and we could cart him to a nearby city. Everything would be fine… probably.

"Guys, stop!" Then Peng's shout echoed across the clearing. "You're going to hurt him too much!"

'Too much' was something debatable… but ultimately, Peng was right. Grovyle's wounds were vicious - he should have fallen unconscious long ago. He hadn't, though - and was still struggling with all the strength he had previously.

Ken continued his attacks, though - maybe he thought that he could finally knock Grovyle unconscious. I was wondering if he wasn't just trying to defeat Grovyle in this instance, but to test his strength as well.

Peng leaped forward and tackled Ken to the ground when he continued. Without Ken battering away at Grovyle's strength, it took a lot more strength to keep Grovyle restrained.

"Peng… Peng!" Ken gasped. "What are you doing?!"

"What are _you_ doing?!" she shrieked. "He's innocent - you don't have to be so brutal on him!"

"But he's going to try to attack us, Peng!" Ken shouted back. "We don't have any other option!"

"Just knock him out, then!"

"I _can't_!" Ken's frustrated voice carried through. "Do you _think_ I'm enjoying this? I've tried a chop to the head! I've tried overwhelming him with pain! _Nothing is working_!"

The two stopped their heated battle, falling to the ground.

It was at that point that me and Alice's strength faltered. We let go of the Imprison for a split second. Grovyle capitalized on the advantage quickly, appearing next to me in a flash. I tried teleporting, but Grovyle smashed me into the ground, making me dizzy.

Then, before Alice could get another Imprison in, Grovyle used Quick Attack and Dig, defeating her in another split second.

As the entirety of our team groaned, Grovyle frowned, before shaking his head and raising his arm-blades.

"Grovyle!"

That wasn't one of our voices, though - instead, it was a foreign voice. I, exhausted, barely managed to turn my head, and found a group of four strange Pokémon - and two Inverted Pokémon in that group.

One of them, a strange bipedal Pokémon wreathed in shadows and surrounded by a corona of light, jumped into the clearing. "Grovyle, what are you _doing_?!" He shouted, distressed.

"Tom, these were traffickers - probably working with HUMANITY, too. They had kidnapped a Pawniard and stuffed him into that box." Grovyle pointed to the sliced box we carried Catal in.

I felt my mouth drop open.

The Grovyle _knew_ about HUMANITY?! It was a secret organization - how did he find out?!

And why did Grovyle refer to that strange Pokémon as Tom - was there someone else named Tom in Naixe?

I desperately tried to pull myself up, so I could ask questions - but the minute to tried, my legs fell under me.

"W-We aren't your enemies," I finally stated, "We're on the same side… I think. You're against HUMANITY, right?"

Grovyle glared at me. "And you're with them, aren't you?

"No! We aren't!" I insisted. "You know their Base is here, right - on the side of the chasm? We're here to take them down too!"

Grovyle stared at me.

Then he sat down.

"Tom, Lotus, Merla, Mage… I'm tired, and I've had enough battle for today. Check them and pull as much information about HUMANITY from them as possible." Grovyle reclined against a tree as he did so.

The Pokémon wreathed in shadows, meanwhile, was gaping, his eyes unfocused.

"V-vinia?!" He finally choked out.

He recognized me - that had to be… no, he was dead. They were _both_ dead.

Tom's eyes went unfocused again, and his mouth curled into a frown. "Mage, check their minds - do the Combusken."

The Inverted Braixen walked forward, and Ken tensed.

"I'm warning you! If you-"

The Braixen's eyes glowed blue, and so did Ken's. I started gathering energy for a Shadow Ball, just in case.

Then her eyes stopped glowing. "They're both clean," she said. "They're not spies."

Grovyle's eyes shot open, and he turned to Mage, mouth opening in shock. "You're joking!"

Tom's eyes started sparkling. "I knew it!"

Ken started scratching his head. "I'm really confused."

The six-legged Pokémon sighed. "Of course you'd be. Enough being cryptic - Tom and I came back from the dead, Grovyle, Lotus, and Mage are our allies, we're here to take on HUMANITY, you two evolved and have come here to take them on, too. Did I get anything wrong?"

There was a deafening silence in the clearing.

"Good."

Alice had fixed her bulging eyes on Tom as if she couldn't quite believe what she was seeing. Ken was quickly looking between the five of them, trying to understand what was going on. Peng just stared.

"Then what was with the Pawniard?!" Grovyle demanded, pointing to the box. "Why was he trapped in there - why were you carrying him around?!"

The Braixen's eyes glowed again. Then she put a hand to her face.

"Grovyle, you freed a member of HUMANITY - Catal, to be exact."

"Who?"

"You WHAT?!" Merla roared, glaring at Grovyle. "You let that monster go?!"

Grovyle gulped.

* * *

"I'm… sorry, for what I did earlier today" Grovyle admitted to me, as we were cooking food over a small bonfire. "I acted rashly, without full context, and I let someone like him go free while I attacked you guys instead."

I waved a hand. "No problem - Alice did the same thing a while back - and I'm pretty sure I would have probably done the same thing if I was in your position. Defending yourself just makes you look more guilty."

Grovyle sighed as he cooked a slab of meat.

"It's in the past, though. So, why are you after HUMANITY?" I asked. "I have a lot of questions I want to ask my mother and aunt - Night and Nyx. Alice wants to confront her brother, Tim, since he's a member of HUMANITY, and Ken wants to confront his father. Lotus - that's the Inverted Vulpix, right - she wants to find her mom. And then Tom, Merla, Mage, and Peng are along for the ride. What about you?"

We had joined our two groups afterwards. There was a lot of catching up to be had, more explanations to be explained, and Pokémon to be introduced to (specifically, Lotus and Mage, the Inverted Pokémon). Eventually, the nine of us arrived at a small cave. Since night had fallen, we decided to make camp for the night.

Grovyle didn't answer my question immediately. Then, in a low voice, he spoke. "I've seen the evil that can be within Inverted Pokémon. Merciless, loveless, ruthless… they spread pain and disaster wherever they walk. I'd like to combat them before I go about finding a way back to my own time."

"You're a time traveler too?" Why wasn't that surprising anymore?

Grovyle nodded. "One day I found myself captured and captive in Vismiana City," he explained. "After Tom and his friends freed me, I did a little bit of digging around. I found that I'm thousands of years in the future from where I come from."

"Oh - so you're like Naetle, Sky, and Dusknoir, then. From that period?"

Grovyle's eyes widened. "They're here in Naixe?!"

"Yeah - they helped us with our infiltration of Night's prison - though, Dusknoir was Inverted."

Grovyle closed his eyes. "That's… worrying," he remarked. "Dusknoir had only recently decided to better himself. His will is strong… but so is the Miasma."

I nodded.

"I hope we can get to him soon," Grovyle admitted. "If Tom can get to him, he can purge the Miasma from him with that light of his. Though I don't like it, it's better than the Miasma any day of the week."

I scratched my head. "The light?"

Grovyle pointed to Tom, who had changed into a different form to eat the food (that had been a bit of a shock the first time he had done it). "Do you see that aura of light around him?"

I nodded. "That corona of light?" Now that I looked at it, it looked strangely familiar.

"Yes, that. He can destroy Miasma with it." He frowned. "For some reason, it takes off the edge I usually have… makes me feel secure and warm… " Grovyle kept on staring at Tom. "But when I see how it affected Lotus and Mage… I can't help but be suspicious."

I scratched my head. "What do you mean? What did the light do to them?"

"The light… it was only for a split second, but for a minute or so, when Tom first cured her, Mage wasn't as snarky as she is now - instead, she was simpering and docile."

A strange chill fell down my spine.

"It hasn't happened since… but I think that's because Tom doesn't like them when they're like that. Now and again, I see them revert to that first state of mind… the slave state of-"

"Please, Grovyle, stop," I begged. "I… I don't think I need to hear more than that."

Grovyle just kept on staring at Tom and the light around him.

"Hey, Tom?" I asked, projecting my voice over the bonfire.

"Yes, Vinia?" he asked, stopping his conversation with Ken to look at me.

"Grovyle just told me about that ability of yours - is it true that it can-"

But I couldn't finish what I was about to say, because Grovyle instantly put his hand over my mouth, to stop me from asking him about the controlling abilities of his power.

Tom nodded. "Yeah, it can help Inverted Pokémon."

I pulled Grovyle's hand off my mouth. "That's not what I was going to…" I stopped short. Tom's eyes were begging me to stop talking.

"Well, I think that corona is a very useful ability, then," I finally said.

Tom nodded. "I guess it is," he admitted - though, the small frown on his face made me think he didn't particularly believe it. "I like that name - 'the Corona'," he offered. "I think I'll make that its name."

"Well, that's great," I said weakly. I looked around and raised my voice. "Um… guys?"

The conversations came to a halt as everyone looked at me.

"We're all planning on storming HUMANITY'S headquarters tomorrow," I started. "We all have our reasons - I'm pretty sure we should go together."

There were no sounds of disagreement. Tom nodded beside me, relieved.

"There's a small problem, though," I admitted. "Though we have their patrols, thanks to Catal and Mage's information, we can't be sure it'll stay that way tomorrow."

Alice raised an eyebrow. "Why not?"

"Because of Catal," Merla answered, shaking her draconic head. "He knew that the four of you were trying to infiltrate the base. And is now free to return to the base."

"Which means…"

"It _means_ they know that we're going to attack tomorrow," Merla explained. "And that they'll leave a trap for us there as a result."

Mage twirled her stick. "That means that they'll cover the usual spots of entry, then. Keep them as traps and guard the entries, so that we can't get in. Maybe even alter possible patrol routes, rendering my knowledge of them useless."

"Then how are we supposed to infiltrate?" Alice asked. "We need a way to get in and out without being seen. And while I'm pretty sure _this_ guy," she jutted a post at Grovyle. "Can take on their forces, that leaves the leaders plenty of time to escape. So while the Vulpix girl-"

"My name is Lotus," she muttered.

"So while Lotus will _probably_ be able to find her mom, and Grovyle will be able to get to beat up the majority of HUMANITY, that leaves us unable to get the answers we need."

"It _is_ your fault," Grovyle pointedly nodded. "You didn't _have_ to bring Catal along-"

"If we let Catal get away before that, he _still_ would have been able to get away," Alice rebutted. "It's not like he doesn't know the way back. All he would have to do is get here first - and he's the one who knew where the place was. We just had a rough approximation."

"And let's not forget that _you_ were the one to free him," Alice gestured to the wreckage of the box that we carried with us. "You destroyed our chances of a quiet infiltration."

Grovyle was silent for a small time.

Then he nodded. "I suppose you're right," he admitted.

This caught Alice off guard. "... what?"

"I was the one that broke the box, and I was the one that stopped you from recapturing him," Grovyle freely admitted. "But what happened is in the past. Where do the four of you plan to go from here?"

"Erm…" That looked to be the end of Alice's spat.

Then Peng took the reins. "Isn't it obvious what we should do?" She asked while stretching a little bit.

"Please explain," Alice asked quietly.

"We work together and split off into teams," Peng held up a flipper. "One team heads off the main force, that was designed to capture us. The other goes and fulfills the objectives. They'll be expecting one force to invade - not two, since they don't know about Tom, Merla, Lotus, or Mage, or that we're all on the same side."

There was a bit of silence.

"Workable," Merla finally judged. "But that _does_ raise a few issues - such as how the teams will communicate and coordinate under such dire circumstances."

I looked at Mage.

"I think I can make a psychic connection with Mage. That _should_ be able to let us communicate over the length of the base - how big is it?"

"Roughly the same size as one of the Venture Bases," Mage answered promptly. "It might take as few as ten minutes to get to the inner chambers."

"Yeah, if we concentrate on a psychic connection, we can communicate," I answered, making a few estimations in my head on how much energy it would take - it would grow exponentially with distance, but we could partially mitigate that with some shorthand. "If we need to switch members quickly, I'm up for teleportation."

Tom nodded. "I can do that too." He transformed into a shadowy Kirlia, before popping across the clearing. "Thanks, by the way."

I waved my hand. "Don't mention it." Tom could also copy abilities and moves with his shadow replication, making things easier.

"If we can concentrate the majority of their forces in a specific place, it can make infiltration easier. Merla and I will concentrate on finding a good route with Mage." The two of them nodded. "All that remains is who goes on which team."

"I'll go on the team that battles the forces," Grovyle volunteered. "It's what I came here for and I'm the strongest fighter here." There were no complaints. "I'd like a healer alongside me as well - so that means Tom or Vinia."

"I'll help you, Grovyle," Tom offered. "Vinia wants to talk to Night and Nyx, and I'm just here to help in general."

And I was going on the infiltration route, so that was already given.

"I'll go with Tom and Grovyle," Mage stated. "If Vinia is going with the infiltrators, then we're going to need someone else on the other end to communicate. I'll psychically give Vinia directions when she needs it."

"That leaves me, Lotus, Peng, Ken, and Alice," Merla stated. "I'm assuming that Lotus, Ken, and Alice have their reasons for wanting to meet with the higher-ups, so they'll-"

"I'll go with Tom and the others," Ken interrupted.

Merla turned a stink-eye on him. "Pardon me?"

"From what we know, Catal thinks that only the four of us - me, Vinia, Peng, and Alice - are going to want to attack the Base. That means that my dad will know, too. If there's an attack on the base, he'll be there - not waiting in the back with the rest of the higher-ups." Ken let out a small smile. "He's not much of a leader or even a servant… he's a warrior."

"... fine." Merla bit out. "Ken is going with the other three. That leaves Vinia, Lotus, and Alice on the infiltration team, and Tom, Grovyle, Mage, and Ken on the decoy team. I do want revenge on Catal, but it's not worth the sake of the mission, so I won't count it. Peng, do you have a preference?"

"No, just along for the ride," she answered. "Really, sometimes I feel out of place with everyone else having such personal reasons to fight. I just want to help in any way I can."

"That's great," Merla tonelessly said. "Then I'll go with the decoy team if there are no objections. I want my revenge on Catal and I can use a lot of wide-ranging attacks in this body, so I'll be able to help. You're competent enough to help the infiltration team."

"That's… great?" Peng's response was more of a question.

I stood up. "Then it's decided. Five of us - Grovyle, Tom, Mage, Ken, and Merla - will act as decoys for the majority of the forces, while the other four go and find the higher-ups - and Lotus' mom."

I looked at Mage and Merla. "We'll discuss routes for tomorrow. We strike early, so get a good night's sleep." Mage and Merla nodded, as the rest of the group started ready to tuck in for the night.

As the two started walking over to me, I started shivering in anticipation.

Tomorrow's the day… I finally get the answers I've been looking for.

I can't wait.

* * *

(Glacia)

I blinked.

What… what just happened?

One second, I was fighting - well, more like waiting for my eventual death from the Ahriman. Then I started floating, and the Ahriman let me go, and…

Where am I?

"Glacia?!" A Grotle looked at me, with a large amount of joy. "You're okay!"

"Uh… what?" I managed to ask before the Grotle bounded over to me, enveloping me in a small hug.

I painfully managed to extract myself from his grasp. "Who are you?"

"Glacia, it's me," the Grotle explained. "Naetle."

… Naetle… but… how…

"Sky and I - let's just say we got some help," Naetle said, before looking around. "We got the distortion around ourselves removed, around an hour ago." Sure enough, Sky was checking himself out, as though he couldn't quite believe he was a Prinplup right now.

"Then how am I here?" I asked. "I - did you do this?"

Naetle nodded. "Well, yeah. Though it wasn't me - it was Hoopa."

"Hoopa?!"

Naetle frowned. "Am I the only one who's never heard of them before?" He shook his head. "But yeah, Hoopa summoned you and Gel here."

I turned and saw Gel cradling Strawberry. He was looking at me. Then he spoke in a low voice. "Glad to see you're okay, Glacia."

I nodded. "Glad to see that you're okay, too." I sat down. "I was a little worried there for a second," I confessed. "After what happened to Koga and Pillar… I…"

Naetle's eyes widened. "Koga?! Pillar?! What happened to them?"

I bit my lip.

"They… the Ahriman… it killed them…" I said. Gel's eyes shadowed at this, as he looked at Strawberry with sorrow.

Naetle was silent, but I could see the grief spill onto his face. Then he spoke. "We… we didn't know them very well, did we? Pillar - I knew him for an hour or two. We traveled with Koga for a bit…"

I laughed hollowly. "Speak for yourself. Gel and I spent the last month with them. It… it was nice, at times," I said. Gel nodded. "I… I think I'll miss them."

Merla, Koga, Pillar… all of them killed by the Ahriman in grotesque ways. I'd never get to see Merla smile… would never see Koga explain his rational deductions… never would be able to talk about exploration and history with Pillar… none of it… ever again.

… why does this hurt so much…

"Can you elaborate, Glacia?" Dusknoir had spoken up - up until now, he had been silently watching the reunion with not even a smile on his face.

I nodded. "If you want me to,"

I told them everything that had happened after Vinia's teleport went wrong - learning about the Ahriman, the travel to Fogbound Lake, battling the fake Groudon, meeting the Uxie projection, taking the Time Gear to the World Abyss, and from there, the dream world.

With every word I said, both Naetle and Sky grew paler and more worried, while Gel gripped Strawberry tighter and tighter in his arms as the story went on.

Finally, I arrived at Pillar and Koga's deaths, and the burning of their souls - the final nail in their coffins, and the removal of any chance of a good afterlife for either.

"And then Hoopa summoned us. Giratina was Inverted, the Time Gear is corrupted, Necrozma is… who knows where he's escaped to, and Koga and Pillar are dead."

I sat down, as the wave of exhaustion crept over me again.

"I'm… tired…"

And I fell faint.

I woke up next to a crackling bonfire, the flames illuminating the treetops. I felt a little more energized, though a strange sickly feeling had settled in my stomach.

"Food." Dusknoir pushed a bit of meat at me. "I went hunting earlier, and you look like you're starving." My stomach gurgled. I chewed on the tough meat while looking around at the rest of the group.

Strawberry, Naetle, and Sky had also been sleeping - Evolution had probably been a drain on their energy reserves, and Strawberry probably didn't have the constitution needed to stay awake this long.

Gel held Strawberry in his arms as he stared at the fire, lost in thought. A sharp frown accosted his face, even though Strawberry was in the safest position I had ever seen. Dusknoir just lounged in the shadows, staring off into the distance.

I kept on chewing the bland, tasteless meat.

As I was finishing it off, Naetle and Sky stirred. Once they had woken up, Dusknoir shoved some more food in their direction. As they chewed, I decided to speak.

"So… what happened to you guys?" I asked them.

Dusknoir answered for them. "Long story short, they were abducted and had their minds messed with by some deranged Mismagius cultists. I then saved them from the cultists, and we wandered around until Hoopa healed their minds."

"Cultists?"

"Yeah - they're called the Temporalists."

I coughed. " _Them_?!"

Dusknoir crossed his arms. "Yes - I assume you recognized the term? They existed in your time as well?"

"They - they're jokes!" I continued with hacking laughter. "You're telling me that they tried to mess with your minds?"

"They succeeded," Naetle said. "They put something in our minds to stop us from remembering what we were going to do and erased our memories as well. Though, we're better now, thanks to Hoopa."

"Oh… what were you going to do?"

"We'll have to wait a while to figure that out," Naetle responded. "It takes a lot out of Sky to use his Dimensional Scream,and it'd be too dangerous for him."

Before I could say anything, though, Sky put his flippers on Naetle's back.

Naetle turned back to him. "Sky, what is it… Sky, no!" Sky was concentrating hard.

Naetle shook Sky off him, but Sky was already experiencing the Scream. Naetle's eyes were fraught with worry.

Finally, Sky's opened again.

"Sky, how could you?! Just today you knocked yourself unconscious _twice_ using that move! What makes you think you can do it again?!"

"Celebi," Sky instead replied.

"W-what?"

"Celebi - that's who we decided to look for, before we got captured by the Temporalists," Sky answered. "We're supposed to look for her - she'll be able to take us back to the past so we can undo all of our mistakes.

"As for what made me think I could use the Dimensional Scream again… Evolution? That, and I just had a really good nap."

Naetle was shaking his head. "Are - are you okay?"

Sky nodded. "I'm fine. The headache isn't that bad - I can manage it easily now. The Evolution did wonders for my endurance."

"So, we're going to look for Celebi, then," Dusknoir summarized. "Any idea where she'll be?"

An almost forgotten memory strayed back into the forefront of my mind.

"Naetle… we met Celebi, right? Back in the forests near the Breaking Site?"

Naetle slowly nodded. "Yeah… didn't she say that she wanted to find Grovyle?"

I nodded.

Dusknoir rubbed his chin. "So you're saying that if we find Grovyle, Celebi won't be too far behind. Do we have any clues as to what Grovyle's location is?"

I shook my head. "Nothing," I confessed. "Though, I'm guessing he's in Naixe - this continent is just begging for trouble."

"I can-" Sky was going to offer something before Naetle glared at him.

"No. More. Dimensional. Screams." Naetle's voice promised retribution if Sky disobeyed. Sky slunk back, sheepish.

Naetle turned back to us. "We need to gather more information, and we're not going to rely on the Dimensional Scream anymore."

Dusknoir gathered a pensive look on his face. "More than that, we'll need to speed up our teleportation."

"It's taking too long for us to get anywhere," Dusknoir explained. "We spent a whole month just wandering through Naixe's countryside, and you spent it traveling across the Grass Continent. The Ahriman isn't the kind of being to just wait around for us, and we don't know how long it'll take to find Celebi. We need to be faster - and that means we need to be able to move faster."

That was… true.

"We have no solid leads on either Celebi or Grovyle at this time, so the best thing to do right now is to keep our eyes and ears out. Ideally, we should find Vinia first - she can Teleport, so she can cut down on travel times."

Dusknoir's argument felt… strange. It made logical sense if we were going to forbid the use of the Dimensional Scream, but… something was off.

Probably nothing.

"So… Jeden City?" Naetle argued. "If we're looking for Vinia, then Jeden City is as good a place as any to look."

Dusknoir nodded. "We're rather close as well."

My eyes widened. "Really?"

Dusknoir nodded, pulling out a large map. "Currently, we're in Ring 9, if this map is to be believed." He traced out a route on his finger, connecting a forest in the middle of Ring 12 to Ring 9 to Ring 8 to Ring 1 to Ring 5. "This is the path to Jeden. The only complication I can see is this chasm in Ring 8 - it's necessary to cross, but is rather dangerous."

Naetle rolled his eyes. "We'll be able to make it over that chasm, Dusknoir. How long will the journey take?"

"Two weeks or so. It'll take a few days to get to Ring 9. In a week, we'll be by Ring 8 and that chasm. Another few days and we'll be in Ring 1. That'll be the last ring before Ring 5, where Jeden is."

"So, this is our new plan?" Naetle asked.

"Wrong. This is _your_ new plan."

All eyes turned to Gel, who was standing up. Strawberry slept in his arms, blissfully unaware of the stares on them.

Sky scratched his head. "Huh?"

"If you haven't figured it out… this is our farewell."

My eyes widened. "Gel… what are you saying?"

"I'm _leaving_." Gel seemed irritated at having to repeat himself. "Don't you get it? I'm _tired_ of having to risk my life against demons and nightmares. I'm tired of having to put myself in danger against evil forces. And now that I'm with Strawberry… now that we can leave… I'm _not_ going to put her in any more danger."

"Gel, please-"

Gel started floating out of the clearing. Before he left our sights, though, he turned around and made one final remark. "Glacia, I'm not going to watch Strawberry die in front of me like Koga and Pillar. Thank you for your kindness… and goodbye."

* * *

"Preparations are ninety-seven percent complete, Captain Rax," Milla was rattling off figures to him as they walked around the campsite, making sure everything was in order for the invasion.

A week ago, they finally left the Base - they and all of the other Captains Rax had managed to bring under his following. The citizens would have to wait for their missions, and soon they would thank him for it.

The invasion was scheduled for tomorrow. Seven different openings, seven different fronts. Of course, Rax wouldn't let the leaders escape - luckily, the memories they had extracted had directions to the center of the stronghold. He would be teleported there so that he could personally lop off the head of the monster.

And he was feeling rather confident that none of the Inverted Pokémon would survive. It took even more large-scale mental modification, but now none of the fighters would be tricked by the evils of the Inverted Pokémon and be unable to kill them.

Mercy was not a luxury they would bestow.

"Development of the special fighters is well underway. Jenga is currently estimated to be level 37, while Shift at level 35." Milla continued. "What will we do with them for the invasion?"

"They'll be at Front 3," Rax decided. "That's the only front we have no Captains leading. They're the ones that need our support."

"Of course, Captain Rax. I'll inform them right away." Milla spun on her heels and strode briskly away to where the two of them were training.

Rax smiled. Over the past few weeks, Milla had grown to be exceptionally more bearable, and she was useful - she had a remarkable capability for handling all the dull aspects of leadership. Rax had even gotten used to her groveling - it was still slightly distasteful, but only as a small stain on an otherwise perfect sheet.

Kiss had also gotten used to it. She eventually accepted the fact that Milla thought Rax was incredibly important to her, and no longer bothered him about it. The slight modifications Neitra made to her temperament sealed it.

Then Neitra popped in front of him.

"Rax, the delegation from Helliana has arrived."

"The Temporalists?" Neitra nodded. "Bring them here, along with Kiss." Her past apprenticeship with Dr. Sahira would come in handy diplomatically.

Neitra nodded his head slightly, before silently popping out of existence. Rax idly waited until a half a minute later, when Neitra returned with ten others - Kiss, eight Mismagius, and a single Misdreavus.

One of the Mismagius stepped forward. "Captain Rax, I presume?" Her voice was short and clipped, though not without its fair measure of kindness.

Rax nodded. "Yes, I am. Are you Dr. Sahira?"

She nodded. "I am." She looked around, noting the tents. "How are the preparations going?"

Oh, good, she had half a brain.

"Mostly complete," Rax answered. "We have enough time to spare so that I can greet you personally."

"That's fortunate. Where is the medical tent?"

"I can show you there, Dr. Sahira," Kiss offered.

Dr. Sahira smiled. "Of course, Ilena." They started walking away, to the medical tent.

Rax turned to the remaining eight, and his false smile fell away. "You are the Temporalists' fight force?"

There was a bit of shuffling around, and a few nods. The Misdreavus just stared at him.

"Who's the leader?" Rax asked bluntly.

"... what?" One of them asked.

"Who is your leader - the one that calls all the shots? Who do you follow?" Rax asked impatiently.

The Mismagius looked bewildered.

"... do you all just follow whatever Dr. Sahira says?" Good lord, they were all sheep. Rax would bet his life that none of them had ever met an Inverted Pokémon before, or even killed.

Wait… they were religious…

"Is there a doctrine in your religion saying you must show mercy or some tripe like that?"

A couple of them bristled. "Mercy is a quality that must be-"

"Yes, yes, I get it," Rax interrupted before they could collect any steam. They would be as threatening as lifeless dolls.

But, just to verify, Rax shot a Gust at a few of them - and they toppled over. Rax's meager hopes for them were crushed in an instant.

"If you all can't even take a _single_ Gust from me, how do you expect to stay strong in an actual battle?" Rax used Absorb on the rest of them. They fell to the ground gasping.

"Leave," Rax coldly stated. "You wouldn't last a minute in an actual battle." The Miasmagius fled before his might. Rax didn't know if they had fled within the camp, or fled the camp altogether. Rax didn't care.

Then he turned to the Misdreavus, who had stayed. "Leave with the rest of your ilk - I want nothing to do with you."

Then, at last, she spoke. "Train me."

"... what?"

"Train me," she ordered. "I need to gain strength, and you are easily the strongest fighter I have ever seen. Train me, so that I may be as strong as you are."

She got points for her initiative - too bad that was all. He didn't help failures.

Rax flicked a Gust at her to send her on her way, before turning around. He had better things to do.

"H-Hold on!"

Rax turned around. She had gotten up and was slowly floating toward him.

"I'm - hold on!" She ordered.

Rax rolled his eyes, before firing a Fire Spin at her. That should be enough to discourage her.

As the flames burned, Rax snorted. At least she had tried harder than the others.

"I'm… I'm not going to give up!"

The singed Misdreavus fell out of the vortex - then pulled herself up.

She glared at him intensely. "I'm - I'm not going to give up, no matter what move you use!"

Rax smiled.

He used Hurricane.

The result gale-force winds whipped the tops of the tents off and tore branches off of the trees - and they weren't even the target.

The Misdreavus gritted her teeth as the full force of his most powerful move slammed into her. Quite simply put, she was going to die.

A shame, too, but he didn't have time for an apprentice. She had capabilities to be a strong fighter, or at the very least stronger than the other Temporalists, but it wasn't enough for him.

As the gales finally died down, she fell to the ground.

Rax, though, kept looking at her.

Then, slowly… ever so slowly… she started getting up, and Rax got a better look at her eyes.

"I will _never_ give up," she promised. "I will gain strength, one way or another, but you'll never scare me away with force."

For the briefest of milliseconds, Rax felt intimidated. He squashed the strangely familiar feeling, then turned to the Misdreavus.

"Misdreavus… what's your name."

"Fey," she answered.

"Fey, if an Inverted Pokémon were to appear in front of you right now, what would be your first reaction?"

"Kill it."

"How?"

"Torture, mind games… pain."

She wasn't lying.

"Why," Rax asked. "Why do you hate them - more than the others."

"Because there's a certain one I want to kill," she promised. "One evil Dusknoir. And I need power for that."

Rax felt intimidated again… then smiled. A true, genuine, smile.

"You wish for power… for revenge. You wish to bring havoc to your enemies. If I allowed you to fight in this war… what would you do?"

"Defeat and kill as many Inverted monsters as possible."

Rax studied Fey for a second. Then he laughed.

"Fine. Fey, you've won." A bloodthirsty smile appeared on her face. "You're allowed to fight in the war - and if you manage to kill… oh, let's say, twelve Inverted Pokémon… I will take you up on your offer."

"I won't let you down," she promised, before stalking away.

"I'll keep an eye on her," Neitra promised, once she was out of earshot.

Rax nodded. "Once this debacle is over, look into her memories and emotions. If she's as good as her word… we've struck gold."

Oh, she wasn't particularly strong, but she could last and endure - and strength was the one thing she needed.

"And Neitra… tomorrow, we strike."

Tomorrow was the day.

* * *

 **Next episode is the end.**

 **The finale.**

 **If you've decided to follow and favorite... thank you. You've made this journey worthwhile.**

 **Stay tuned - the next chapter will be... unique.**


	26. 26 - An End with an Epilogue

'As per the wishes of the original author, Glacia Eonia, we'd like to end this story on a dialogue concerning the final battle and aftermath. This is completely unedited, for reasons discussed within the dialogue. All of the recordings were taken (more or less) with permission.'

\- Benison Neitria, more well known as 'Neitra'

Legend:

 _Italics: Glacia - Inverted Eevee_

 _Italics and Underline: Merla - Giratina Drone_

 _ **Italics and Bold: Vinia - Gardevoir**_

 _ **Italics, Underline, and Bold: Shiny Celebi**_

 _Part 26: The Ending._

 _Glacia here. You might be wondering why this in a different format than any of the other chapters. Well, there's a reason for that._

 _The events at HUMANITY'S headquarters… is where it all ended. The Ahriman, the Miasma, our searches, our worries, our grievances… it all ended on that day, for better or for worse._

 _If you're like me, you're feeling a strange sense of disconnect. It looked like we were straight in the middle of the conflict with Zoro- sorry, the Ahriman - he was gaining power, and Tom would have to gain power that was equal to it or greater than it faster than the Ahriman strengthen himself. Legendaries were fleeing for their freedom. Tom was_ supposed _to have a long way to go. It felt like it was supposed to be… harder, for some reason._

 _But… no._

 _The Ahriman died that day._

 _Lady Glacia… please get to the point - and that sense of disconnect is from you dictating this because you twisted your paw from writing too much._

 _Merla, please._

 _That mega-chapter - it was twenty-seven thousand words, wasn't it?_

 _I split it up in three later, okay? One chapter for our battle in the dream world, and two for Tom's search in Vismiana and eventually, the rediscovery of Corona in the Distortion World._

 _Lady, Glacia, the story?_

 _Right, right..._

 _In some strange turn of events, we reunited. It was strange how fate coincided - everyone and everything meeting in the same place at the same time. Teams Vinia and Tom, Rax's armies, all of the members of HUMANITY, the Ahriman (considering the stakes in the battle, he would naturally be here)... everyone and everything._

 _That day, five weeks from the battle of the prison, was when everyone collided. The four of us - Dusknoir, Naetle, Sky, and I - had gone to Ring 8, on our way to Jeden to find Vinia. We stopped, though, when we saw the carnage going on in the chasm._

 _Dotted throughout the valley were bloodshed and death. Rax's forces fought to the death against the Inverted Pokémon of HUMANITY, who fought surprisingly well. A small stench of death rose up into our nostrils as we surveyed the carnage._

 _Then Dusknoir saw her - Mage. Within seconds, Dusknoir fell into the bloodthirsty trance all Miasma-Inverted Pokémon faced when encountering an X-Variant. He tore through the dense sea of fighters, not even bothering to pause once. The three of us could only follow in his wake as he broke through to where Grovyle was. I don't know how I managed to remain lucid._

 _Grovyle turned, and his eyes widened upon seeing Dusknoir, who was gearing up for an attack. His arms, he later told me, were trembling - he didn't know whether he could actually go through with attacking Dusknoir since they were friends._

 _He probably could, you know. Grovyle isn't afraid to beat people down when the time calls for it._

 _Probably, Merla. Either way, the battle never really started. Before the blades and fist could clash even once, Tom sent that light - the Corona - directly at Dusknoir, paralyzing him within his tracks. Within seconds, Dusknoir was writhing in pain, the Corona and Miasma battling it out in his soul and flesh._

 _Then… several seconds later… Dusknoir relaxed, the Corona settling deep in his soul._

" _My apologies," he said, before bowing to Tom. "What would you like me to do, Master Tom?"_

 _There was a stark silence at this proclamation._

" _Just… take care of the enemy forces, alright?"_

 _Just then, Merla had finished taking care of Catal, who she had found and quickly defeated._

 _He hadn't gotten that much stronger than when we were all learning to be Venturers together - it was remarkably easy._

 _Don't brag, Merla._

 _Sorry._

 _Anyway, Merla then looked at me, there was a bunch of realizations, yadda yadda, reunions. It lifted some strange weight from my chest, knowing I wasn't the cause of your death._

 _You were, Lady Glacia - it was just that the death wasn't permanent._

 _Semantics!_

 _Can you get back to the story, Lady Glacia? I'm starting to tire of this - how long will this story be?_

 _Merla, we're getting to the end, please be patient._

 _Alright, but hurry it up. Vinia and I will be going to the past soon to get more books._

 _I know, I know._

 _After the reunions - we were battling, so they were a little fragmented - we started to make our way into the base. Their original goal - be a distraction - was already accomplishing itself thanks to Rax's little crusade. At that point, we all decided to head inside - all except for Ken, who was off somewhere else, having spotted Captain Falcon._

 _Later, we learned he had evolved into a Blaziken in the battle - and that he finally managed to defeat Captain Falcon, though he had fainted as well. The two are getting along well now, aren't they?_

 _In a sense. Falcon holds respect for Ken now, and Ken isn't the kind of person who holds lifelong grudges - he only wanted catharsis, as far as I could tell. They're cordial, certainly._

 _While we were running, Tom took the time to purge me of the Miasma that was in me, from Zoroa- ugh, the names are still a little hard to keep track of._

 _Tom purged the rest of the Miasma from within me. A tiny weight pulled itself off my chest… though, strangely, it didn't disappear._

 _It hasn't disappeared at all._

…

…

 _Lady Glacia, would you like to resume this at anot-_

 _No, no, I can finish._

 _After a while, we got closer and closer to the inside of the headquarters. At this point, we split off into two teams. Half of us went off to go to the holding cells, to help Lotus with whatever she needed, and the other half went to go take care of Nyx and the leader of HUMANITY._

 _You know, you could just call him Pyre._

 _But it didn't_ feel _like Pyre, you know? He was that nice guy we met in the Base, before the breaking - I'm still having a hard time believing he was the one who created HUMANITY._

 _Regardless, Lady Glacia, you weren't there to witness our jailbreak, as you were with the other team. I insist you take a break - drink a glass of water or something - while I narrate what happened in the holding cells_

 _Don't mind if I do!_

…

 _..._

… _good, she's taking a break… to be honest, she needs to take it easier on herself. She's spent the last few weeks working on this book, and she's been spending day and night working on and perfecting it. Thankfully, she only_ just _broke her paw._

 _Merla, I can_ hear _you!_

 _Back to the story. So, the teams split up into Mage - that weird Braixen girl - Naetle, Sky, and I going after Lotus and Peng, while you guys went after Vinia and Alice._

 _It took some time for us to navigate the holding cells, but once we found a weakened Inverted Pokémon, all we had to do was beat him up and have Mage inject some of Tom's Corona into him. Once he was securely on_ our _side, he told us where Lotus's mom was being kept._

 _Then he fell unconscious due to his injuries._

 _So, after we followed his directions, we found the two - Peng and Lotus - battling for their lives against two Pokémon I didn't recognize at first._

 _Later, we found out they were Shift and Jenga - though since we didn't_ know _that, I just assumed they were some of HUMANITY'S or Rax's soldiers. So we fought. And we won._

 _Merla, it sounds boring when you put it that way._

 _It's true, isn't it? By the time Naetle realized the Klinklang he was beating into submission used to be Shift the Klink, he had already fainted. And, to be fair, if Shift had learned it was us, the fight would have been a_ lot _more dangerous._

 _How's his deprogramming going, by the way?_

 _Slowly- Neitra's amazing at his job, but he can't undo what he did to Naetle easily. Though, he is_ definitely _making progress._

 _Ah…_

 _Anyway, Jenga didn't recognize us either, and while he was_ obscenely _strong, we managed to take him down._

 _Merla… couldn't you describe the battle a little bit? You know I like having a bit of kick to them, make them more interesting._

 _Merla used Dragon Breath! Jenga used Steamroller! It wasn't very effective! Merla used Shadow Force! Jenga used-_

 _Alright, alright, I_ get _it. Fine, you managed to beat Shift and Jenga._

 _Yeah - so, after that, we freed Lotus's mom from her prison. She's still a little shaken from the whole thing, and she's worried about Lotus, considering how the Corona has affected her mind._

 _Merla, focus - didn't you want to be somewhere?_

 _Then let me_ speak.

 _After we rescued Lotus's mom - we kept her with us - we looked at who else HUMANITY had captured - and guess what? Kavol was there, too._

 _He's made a full recovery, hasn't he? From the starvation?_

 _He said he'd accidentally starved himself longer than HUMANITY has - and since they let him make stuff for them, it wasn't all bad. He built this dictation machine, didn't he?_

 _Yeah, but do you_ know _how often he complains to me about the troubles he had to go through to build the radar? He never stops!_

 _He's right, you know - and we never got to use it._

 _It didn't work, anyway - it has too many false positives to be reliable._

 _Look, Lady Glacia, do you_ really _want to finish the story today?_

 _Yeah, why?_

 _Well, it's getting rather late in the evening, you look tired, and I'm done with my segment since all we did then was just wait out the battle to reconnect with you guys. Can you finish all of it?_

…

 _Lady Glacia, that wasn't a challenge._

 _Well, I'm taking it as one._

 _Lady Glacia-_

 _So, after we separated, we started walking through the facility, trying to find our way to the center of the complex and Alice and Vinia. We made it to an atrium, eventually, where we found them barely hanging on._

 _Remind me again how they survived?_

 _Vinia just teleported them around a lot - neither Tim nor Zoro- sorry, the Ahriman- could land a solid hit on them._

 _You know, you could just call the Ahriman by Zoroas - it_ was _his name._

 _But that would be telling the story out of order, Merla. And I haven't named the Ahriman as Zoroas yet or explained it._

 _When_ will _you?_

… _okay, the Ahriman isn't just named 'the Ahriman'. His name, before everyone just called him 'the Ahriman' was Zoroas. Giratina was the one who told me. Happy, Merla?_

 _Yes._

 _You know, I'll probably alter this in editing, make your end a lot more interesting and impactful - and I'll explain the whole 'the Ahriman is Zoroas' thing a whole lot better in it._

 _Good luck doing that with a broken hand and poor writing skills - I've read the draft for the last few chapters, and you keep jumping back-and-forth in perspective and time._

 _ **Merla, what's taking you so long? Celebi's waiting for us.**_

 _Oh, hey Vinia. Lady Glacia's decided to finish the story tonight._

 _ **You're already finishing it up? Where are you guys right now?**_

 _The final battle - you know, where the six of you took on Zoroas and Tim._

 _ **You're that far?**_

 _Can you take it from here? It might be a good idea for us to just take turns?_

 _ **Well… I'm fine with it, as long as we can do it quickly. Celebi has a date - sorry, a 'small dinner' - with Grovyle later, so she wants to get it over with.**_

 _Make sure the battles are_ interesting, _okay? Merla's battles are as boring as watching a Slowpoke try to run._

 _Hey!_

 _ **I'll do my best, Glacia.**_

 _ **The four of us - Peng, Lotus, Alice, and I - split into two teams. Half of us went to find Hessia-**_

 _Who?_

 _ **Lotus's mother, Glacia. Remember people's names when they introduce themselves, please.**_

 _Fine, fine._

 _ **Peng and Lotus went to find her, while Alice and I went to find Nyx. After we made it roughly 600 meters farther into the Base, we found our way to the center.**_

 _ **After encountering Nyx-**_

 _What were they doing?_

 _ **What?**_

 _What were they doing? I assume they weren't just standing there, like statues, were they?_

 _ **No?**_

 _So say what they were doing, then._

 _ **Glacia, you don't have to be so pushy. Nyx was talking telepathically to someone - I don't know who. I don't remember if she was saying anything either.**_

 _We should have Neitra get the memory of the encounter- if he can pull the memory from inside your head, we'd have all these answers._

 _ **He's on a trip, Glacia.**_

 _Where?!_

 _ **To Jeden - he's at a meeting to decide what the Venturers will do about the Untwisting, together with Rax.**_

 _Figures._

 _Focus, Vinia._

 _ **Sure. We took that opportunity to barge in. We slammed her to the ground with psychic powers, then locked her in with Imprison. At that point, we started another chain of attacks, where I would routinely lock her into place with Imprison, while Alice attacked with Shadow Balls. It took us five minutes to wear her down enough so she couldn't use her powers.**_

… _better than Merla's, but it was way too brief. You need to explain each of their moves and their effects._

 _ **Doesn't that just waste time?**_

 _It's_ flavor!

 _ **None of my business.**_

 _ **After we had beaten her down, we started asking our questions. Then, after we asked the questions-**_

 _Describe those questions._

 _ **What?**_

 _Describe the questions, Vinia._

 _ **But they aren't important, Glacia - not anymore.**_

 _Those questions are the_ entire _reason you wanted to infiltrate, right? What are they?_

 _ **But don't we have more to talk-**_

 _Vinia, answer the question!_

…

… _sorry._

… _**very well. I had asked her about the truth behind HUMANITY - namely, where they came from, what started it all, etc.**_

 _Didn't you already know that?_

 _ **It was more to confirm than anything. The one I wanted to ask questions from was Night… but there's little-to-no hope for recovery for her.**_

 _You're treating her, right?_

 _ **Neitra and I are doing our best… but it's not going that well. We might have to get Uxie to help her… though, that's the last resort.**_

 _Why?_

 _ **We don't want her to remember the wrong memories - memories of the prison, of the happiness she gained from it.**_

 _Ah…_

 _ **We want her to be a normal person now… no crimes, no prisons, nothing. I'm sick of the very idea.**_

 _ **I asked Nyx the questions - though she seemed to**_ **enjoy** _ **the pain, more than anything. At least, that's what I sensed with my horn. There wasn't that much I could get out of her, so we knocked her out.**_

 _Then you went after the leader of HUMANITY._

 _ **Right - Grandfather. Though, we didn't get to talk to him. Hard to talk to someone who's dead.**_

 _But he's a Ghost-type, right?_

 _ **That doesn't mean your physical form can't be destroyed, or that your soul is invulnerable. It just means you don't need food or sleep or have most of the biological functions.**_

… _I don't get it._

 _ **It's not important. The important thing was who else was there.**_

 _Zoroas._

 _ **Well, yeah - though we didn't know it at the time. I thought he was just some Sableye at that point - he could've been any of Dusknoir's former underlings.**_

 _What's with them, by the way?_

 _ **After Tom cured them, they went back to serving under Dusknoir. It's not like they had much loyalty anyway, one way or another.**_

 _Repulsive._

 _ **Anyway, Zoroas and Tim were standing over Pyre's fading corpse.**_

 _Why did they kill him, again?_

 _ **Do you**_ **want** _ **me to finish?**_

 _I want the readers to_ experience _what happened. That means going into the details._

 _ **No wonder you broke your paws writing.**_

 _ **I don't know**_ **why** _ **they killed him. If I was to guess, it was probably to get rid of loose ends and have Zoroas sate his urge for destruction. There was also the chance that Pyre would have been able to resist Zoroas' control - and Pyre would have opposed him entirely.**_

 _Their goals were mutually exclusive, right? Since Zoroas ended all of humanity and Pyre wanted to resurrect them._

 _ **Right - and Giratina and Necrozma were right about one thing - Tim and Pyre had remarkable control over the Miasma, and from what Tim has been showing us, the Corona as well. If Tom and Tim had managed to work together, I would think the conflict would have ended faster. Either way, Pyre had become a threat to be eliminated. I suppose Zoroas took the invasion as an opportunity.**_

 _ **The two of them - Zoroas and Tim - were waiting for us. Zoroas had used his spy network to figure out we were coming for him.**_

 _Still can't believe he was using me like that._

 _ **You should have known by that point - the fact that Zoroas had already 'borrowed' your body during the expedition into the World Abyss and that he telepathically dispersed the Miasma around you should have clued you into that fact.**_

 _All I knew was that he could communicate telepathically with his subjects. How was I supposed to know the Miasma let him know everything we did?_

 _ **Simple deductions, Glacia. Simple deductions.**_

 _If I may offer a small suggestion, Lady Glacia._

 _Merla?!_

 _Did you forget I was here?_

…

… _you should probably explain to the readers what you guys are talking about._

 _What do you - oh, right, we're recording this!_

 _Did you forget that too?_

 _ANYWAY! *cough* Let's skip forward for a second. After everything was all said and done, Tom let us know that the Corona was an extension of his senses - namely, that they could report on their surroundings and the events that occurred around them._

 _ **It didn't take much thinking to realize it was how Zoroas kept himself so informed. He showed it, too - the instant we entered the room in the back of the atrium, he locked me down with an Imprison.**_

 _Why didn't Tim lock Alice down too?_

 _ **I don't know-**_

 _Never mind, I remember! It was the day we left for the Breaking - Chapter 13 for the readers (see, I remember!). Alice showed Tom she could break out of an Imprison with her Ghost-typing - Tim was there, in the back of Tom's head!_

 _ **Then Tim would naturally know since he could see everything Tom saw - and Alice didn't even bother trying doing it either since she knew that he knew how to do it.**_

 _ **So, while Tim and Alice began their battle - one that was against Alice since she was hesitating more than the ruthless Tim was - Zoroas tried to get under my skin since he wanted his kill to be fun.**_

 _How do you-_

 _ **My horn - it senses emotions and particularly strong desires.**_

 _Right._

 _ **Of course, he couldn't - all I had to do was mask my emotions with his own. We played a 'fun' game of alternating between anger and happiness since sadism is weird like that. He must have felt like he was wasting time at that point, though, because he decided to go in for the kill.**_

 _And then you-_

 _ **Evolved. It shouldn't be too surprising - it's not like I was a weak Kirlia. The final struggle for my life enabled me to evolve and escape.**_

 _I wish it was that easy for me._

 _ **Look, once we find Hoopa, we'll have them undo the dimensional distortion around you. Then you can evolve into whatever you want.**_

 _Urgh, that's going to be such a big decision. Any suggestions?_

 _Focus,_ please _, or we'll never get through this all!_

 _ **Well, after that, Alice and I did our best to dodge their attacks. They almost got us a couple of times, but my teleports managed to save us more than a few times.**_

 _Ooh! This is where I come in!_

 _ **Yeah - you want to take care of it while Merla and I go with Celebi?**_

… _you_ could _stay here, while I finish?_

 _ **Glacia, we don't-**_

 _We should stay, Vinia._

 _ **You too, Merla?**_

…

…

… _**fine, I'll stay. Make it quick, though - Celebi must already be wondering what's taking so long.**_

 _Thanks, Vinia!_

 _ **Hurry up, okay?**_

 _Sure thing._

 _So, once we found you guys fighting against Tim and Zoroas, we immediately joined in, splitting again. Alice and I went after Tim since I had Ghost-type moves that could deal super-effective damage and a Normal-typing to protect me from retribution, while you, Grovyle, Dusknoir, and Tom went after Zoroas._

 _ **And we**_ **won.**

 _I mean, it was probably really close, on the wire, three seconds away from death-_

 _ **Glacia, Zoroas couldn't even**_ **touch** _ **us. Tom burned away any Miasma faster than he could make it, Grovyle and Dusknoir's tag team is strong enough to take down**_ **Legendaries** _ **, and I just kept on Imprisoning him to stop him from even moving! Meanwhile, Alice was**_ **almost** _ **as strong as Tim was - you were more than enough to tip the scales. It was barely a contest.**_

…

 _ **Glacia, I know you don't want Koga and Pillar's deaths to seem pathetic, that you don't want to make them look weak, but this is a**_ **history** _ **book! Once we recreate schools, colleges, and universities, this will be taught to**_ **everyone!** _ **You can't alter it to match your wishes!**_

 _Vinia, I-_

 _ **You will**_ **not** _ **be editing what I said out of this - I will break your bones if I have to!**_

 _What about the Hippopotacrat-_

 _ **Finish that sentence, Glacia. I dare you.**_

… _sorry for interrupting, but can you guys explain why there were no Legendaries there?_

 _Huh?_

 _The readers will probably be wondering, 'Why didn't Zoroas bring any Legendaries with him? He had Darkrai, Cresselia, Uxie, Manaphy, and Giratina on his side - why didn't he get them to help?'. You should probably explain that._

 _Oh, that. Well-_

 _You should also mention that he got Manaphy as well._

 _He's not that important, okay?_

 _ **Manaphy won't like to hear that, you know.**_

 _Celebi?!_

 _ **Vinia, Merla, I've been waiting for an**_ **hour!**

 _ **Sorry, Glacia's just asked us to help her with the finale. I tried saying no… it didn't go well.**_

 _ **I can tell. You're going to make me late for my dinner with Grovyle!**_

 _We're writing a_ history _book - that's more important than your date!_

 _ **It's - it's not a date, okay?!**_

 _ **Regardless, Celebi, were you there during the battle of Legendaries?**_

 _ **Yes - though, it wasn't a battle - it was more of a curb stomp.**_

 _ **Could you explain it to the readers, please?**_

… _**alright. *cough* You see, children-**_

 _Celebi, quit it with that saccharine voice. They're not babies._

 _ **Can this contraption even**_ **convey** _ **tone?**_

 _I don't know, ask Kavol - he's the one who built it, after all._

 _ **Well, fine, spoil my fun. Zoroas forgot to take one thing into account when he concocted his plan to Invert Uxie. One tiny little thing. The other two Lake Guardians. Uxie, in the final few seconds before the Miasma overtook him, sent a telepathic message to Mesprit and Azelf.**_

 _Wasn't he asleep?_

 _ **Uxie's the Being of Knowledge - something like that wouldn't stop him.**_

 _ **Under Zoroas' control, he sent another message saying the first message was a joke - but Azelf and Mesprit didn't believe him.**_

 _Probably from the latent negativity and malice Uxie had within him at that point._

 _ **They then spent the next month gathering forces. Dialga, Palkia, Necrozma (once he ran away from the dream world), Mewtwo, Mew, Groudon, Rayquaza… as many as they could find and convince. That included me too, once Dialga managed to get a telepathic connection with me.**_

 _ **Then, during the final battle in HUMANITY'S headquarters… we launched our counterattack on the Legendaries under Zoroas' control, while they relaxed in their fortress in the dream world. They didn't stand much of a chance either.**_

 _So, in other words, all of Zoroas' forces were simultaneously crushed._

 _ **Yes - though, we were worried, since we couldn't get rid of the Miasma inside them. That, and Zoroas himself remained unaccounted for.**_

 _Yeah, well, we took care of both of those things. Why didn't you kill Zoroas before, though - you guys are strong enough._

 _ **Other than the fact that he kept himself hidden for the majority of the month? We didn't know if we could kill him this time around - we failed, all of the previous times.**_

 _Wait, what?!_

 _ **We tried before. When Zoroas Major started killing all of humanity, we Legendaries naturally had to intervene. Mewtwo went and killed him by twisting his neck, and we thought that would be the end. But**_ **no,** _ **he just wouldn't die - lopping off his head, throwing away his heart, chopping his limbs and throwing him into a-**_

 _Okay, we get it! He was immortal!_

… _Zoroas 'Major'. Celebi, you should probably explain what you mean by that._

 _ **Oh, right, the book. *sigh* Fine. There are**_ **two** _ **of Zoroas - one was the Ahriman, the one we tried to kill over and over again.**_

 _ **The other, meanwhile, was Tom - Zoroas Minor.**_

… _**I'll explain this one.**_

 _ **My explanation was perfectly understandable!**_

 _ **Okay, I'll clarify, then. The Ahriman and Tom used to be a single person, under the name of Zoroas - except when Zoroas was killed for the first time, a chunk of his soul was ripped out. Necrozma and Giratina rescued that chunk of the soul - Tom.**_

 _He's not a 'chunk of the soul', Vinia!_

 _ **Okay, then think of it as Zoroas splitting into two - one, the large half, became Zoroas Major, or the Ahriman. The other became Zoroas Minor - Tom. Is that better, Glacia?**_

… _slightly, though that still makes it sound like Tom's some sort of 'accident' or whatever._

 _ **Giratina and Necrozma rescued Tom when Zoroas was killed for the first time. But Zoroas didn't**_ **die -** _ **instead, he just kept on living. His body just kept moving, regardless of what we did to it.**_

 _ **Then Mewtwo decided to end it all and just fire a Hyper Beam straight through Zoroas' body. That killed him since he didn't have a body to return to - he was vapor, at that point.**_

 _But then…._

 _ **Then Zoroas returned in another body - a Pokémon this time, and continued his destruction of humanity. No matter how hard we tried, no matter how many times we got rid of his body, it never was enough to finish him.**_

 _ **Eventually, Xerneas decided to just make him immortal and stick him in a dungeon for the rest of eternity. No way for him to escape, at that point. Then we received the final nail in the coffin - Zoroas could just jump out of his body, whenever he chose to.**_

 _I got firsthand experience of that when he threw me away for a shiny new Henka body._

 _ **And… he destroyed everything. We could only delay him, barely. The best we could do was save some humans who showed promise. Those eventually became Sky and the other heroes, who eventually turned into Pokémon themselves. Eventually, his activities slowed - at that point, he was still around, but since there was nothing we could do about it, we just did our best to continue life as is.**_

 _Then how did you guys kill him, Vinia?_

 _ **Well, it was a little hard. Every time Grovyle or Dusknoir landed a finishing blow, he would just regenerate from it. We figured that he was using Recover, switching to different Pokémon to do so.**_

 _Oh - quick interruption - while you were trying to kill him, Alice and I took down Tim._

 _ **Yeah… well, eventually, we stopped trying to kill him. I was holding him in place with an Imprison, and Dusknoir was holding his soul in place so he couldn't get out of his body as he had with yours. But we had no idea how to kill him.**_

 _Then I had my bright idea!_

 _ **Huh?**_

 _When Zoroas killed Koga and Pillar, he turned into a Chandelure to finish them off. A Chandelure's flame destroys the soul itself - nothing remains._

 _ **We tried that too - but Zoroas' soul wouldn't burn in the flames. It was as invulnerable as he was immortal.**_

 _We tried it, too - Tom pumped Corona into Tim until he was practically begging Tom to give him an order. When Tim tried to burn Zoroas' soul away, it just didn't work._

 _ **Okay, so how**_ **did** _ **you do it?**_

 _Tom jumped into Tim's shadow to get a Chandelure form. Then he tried to burn Zoroas' soul away himself._

 _ **And?**_

 _And it worked. We finally killed him - his soul burned away into nothingness._

… _**wow. So Necrozma and Giratina were right - Tom**_ **was** _ **the key.**_

 _Yeah - too bad they messed everything else up._

 _That reminds me, Celebi - do you know why Necrozma screamed I had 'ruined everything' back in my old time? I've only just remembered him screaming that at me._

 _ **No - though, I think it was because you messed up his analysis of Tom's soul.**_

 _Was that what that was? It just looked like a personality quiz._

 _ ***shrug* What else is there left to talk about?**_

 _Well, there is the matter of Rax, Fey, and everyone else that tried to get in our way and/or kill us._

 _I'm pretty sure just saying, 'Tom used the Corona on them all' works._

 _Okay, yeah, but I had built them up as villains and-_

 _You built up Fey as comic relief and the rest of the Temporalists as fools._

 _They're_ stupid!

 _ **I'm confident they'll use your textbook in the future as an example of religious racism.**_

 _No, they won't - and they're_ wrong! _All the Temporalists are wrong!_

 _ **Glacia, just because they're wrong-**_

 _Dialga himself said that they were wrong to their faces! How stupid could they be-_

 _ **There's nothing you can do about it, Glacia. People will believe what they want to believe, and there's no need to mock them about it.**_

 _You can't stop me._

 _ **I'll be editing the book after you're done with it, you know.**_

 _What - who permitted you?!_

 _ **I did - and there's nowhere you can hide the manuscript where I won't be able to reach or find the location.**_

…

 _ **Neitra likes me more than he likes you, Glacia - he won't alter my memories.**_

… _you win._

 _ **Are they**_ **always** _ **this intense?**_

 _You get used to it after a while._

 _So, what else do we have to cover?_

 _ **Well, Tom cured the controlled Legendaries as well as all of the Miasma-Inverted Pokémon.**_

 _I'm pretty sure they can all figure that out for themselves._

 _ **The Mystery Dungeons all disappeared.**_

 _Use the proper name, Vinia - 'the Untwisting'._

 _ **That's a dumb name and you know it.**_

 _Well, what else would it be called? It's a Twisting when a Mystery Dungeon is created, and an Untwisting when it disappears._

 _Okay, but that just happened randomly - it was only a few days ago. It's been months since the battle at the headquarters - they can't be related._

 _ **They probably are - the Mystery Dungeons only first started showing up when Zoroas was killed, and he was the only one with the ability to control Mystery Dungeons. Why wouldn't his death be the cause of it?**_

 _Another question to answer for the readers - what about the reason why Zoroas appeared_ now _, of all times?_

 _I already covered that, Merla - it's because I woke him up by calling him by his title._

 _Okay, then why was he in you, to begin with? What's the origin of the Miasma - it wasn't around when Zoroas was still a human, right?_

 _ **Right - though, I don't know the answer to that. Does anyone here know?**_

 _How can we? There's no way to find out._

 _What about that explosion of space-time that Hoopa was talking about?_

 _ **That was probably some last-ditch effort by Zoroas, when he was controlling Darkrai, to destroy everyone in Dark Crater. It failed miserably, didn't it?**_

 _Okay, why did you three - Grovyle, Dusknoir, and Celebi - come to the future?_

 _ **Merla, do you**_ **want** _ **to keep this farce going?**_

 _I want it to be complete, Celebi._

 _ **Fine. I asked Dialga about that, and he admitted to sending us to this time, with all our abilities intact - though he gave Grovyle a rough landing, the monster. Giratina had asked him to help too since he wanted Tom to have all the help he could get when taking down the Miasma. Anything else, Merla?**_

 _There_ is _the prophecy that the Temporalists were talking about._

 _ **Another one of Hoopa's pranks.**_

… _did Tom get his game of tag-_

 _ **Does that**_ **matter?!**

 _No, not really. Glacia, is there anything else you want to talk about?_

… _no, Merla. The three of you can leave._

 _Well, see you._

 _ **Good luck, Glacia.**_

 _ **Let's go!**_

…

…

…

 _They're gone again… I'm alone…_

… _why does this hurt so much…_

… _if you want to know more… well…_

 _Naetle, Sky, Dusknoir, Grovyle, and the Sableye have returned to their respective times._

 _Shift and Jenga are going through treatment by Neitra to undo the damage he caused._

 _Alice has gone back to Venturing to find herself. Though, she visits now and again to spend some time with Tom. She and Tim don't get along very well anymore._

 _Lotus is spending time with her mom - Tom told the Corona to leave her entirely. She's recovering from the mentals effects the Corona caused._

 _Neitra and everyone else are all working to rebuild society to something presentable instead of the shambles it has been since the fall of the Kingdoms. Tom and Mage have been traveling together since Mage doesn't have anywhere else to go._

 _Peng wants to find Gel - both Rokka and Kol died in the final battle, to Inverted Pokémon. She wants to make sure that she's not the only one of Team Link left._

 _Celebi, Vinia, Merla, and I have been working hard to advance education. We're going back in time to take books away from Eonia's soon-to-fall libraries so that we can get a richer view of history, taking us from the Passage of Time in what used to be Ring 17. Today, I would have gone with them, if my paw hadn't been broken from writing too much._

 _That's why we're recording this with a machine, instead of writing this down._

…

 _This is where the story ends. No more questions left to answer, or at least ones that I can answer._

…

 _If you're wondering when I'll return home, now that I can travel back to that time… I won't. I can't._

 _I'm not who I used to be._

 _I'm half a year older… Inverted… different. They wouldn't accept me the way they used to._

 _And there's no telling how the timeline will change if I go back. That's what Naetle and Sky wanted… but we can't afford to lose the victory we have right now._

 _We can't afford to change the future._

 _So… I'm stuck here. No physical barriers… just the knowledge that I'll probably doom thousands in the process._

…

 _It's torture… seeing my past self study while we steal books. Knowing that she'll have to go through the same struggles I did… make the same mistakes… trust the wrong people… everything._

 _It's torture… looking at my brother and sister, knowing they'll be the first on the chopping block during Lord Black's failed takeover. Knowing that there are only so many of their bright smiles._

 _It's torture… having to look at the final lesson we had. With all of my other time-traveling selves… some older and evolved already… all knowing that we won't change our fate… that we're stuck in this prison of time._

…

 _I'm tired… I want all of this to end… I know I won't die anytime soon, but… but…_

 _Why does it hurt so much… to be alone?_

…

… _I'm tired… I think I'll take a nice… long… nap…_

… _please… anyone… help..._

…

* * *

"Sharfa… Sharfa… hold on!"

Eletek's step-sister Benisharpha had gone off her rocker. She had run out of Siemna Town after they had finished their lesson with Mr. Desmiande. She practically ran over the passerby as she did so.

"Sharfa… Sharfa… please, stop! Where are you going?!"

Then Eletek stopped in the middle of his run. There, right in the middle of the hillscape, was something bizarre. A tree, one that he had never seen before, was standing there, in a bizarre way.

Then Eletek slapped himself. He had to stop Benisharpha before she did anything reckless. Eletek remembered the sponge bath and gasoline incident quite vividly… his fur was never _quite_ the same.

He quickly ran past the tree and, within ten minutes or so, caught up to her. She was practically bouncing on the balls of her feet at this point.

"What took you so long, Tek?!"

"Sharfa… what… what's this about?!" He finally managed to get out. "Are you crazy?!"

"Nope - take a look at this!"

She shoved a book in his face. Eletek barely managed to register the cover - the textbook they were reading in school, _the Shades of Honor_ \- before she flipped forward fifteen chapters.

"Here it is!" she shouted, pointing to one of its pages.

Eletek blinked as he read it out loud.

* * *

(The Shades of Honor; Chapter 15: A Prison Visit)

"I tapped the side of a tree on the side of the hill. If I was lucky, I'd get some signal from the Dimensional Scream on where to go. A literally sickening tool, but drastic times call for drastic measures.

As my telltale nausea started up again, I closed my eyes. With a flash…

' _... Sharfa, wait up!' A panting Electabuzz leaned on the side of the tree, having caught up to the anxious Fraxure. 'Are you sure this is the best option?'_

 _Sharfa stared at the Electabuzz. 'Tek, do you understand what's happening? They're recruiting for the army! We're finally fighting against those awful… demons! They'll need everyone to fight, Tek.' Sharfa punched the tree in excitement. 'This is our chance to secure our future! Onwards, Tek, to Siemna Town!' Sharfa made a mad dash to the north, almost forgetting entirely about Tek._

 _Tek panicked. 'Sharfa, wait up!' He too ran to the north._

… I reopened my eyes.

'Okay… to Siemna Town!' With that, I shot northward. I had to get back to Treasure Town so that Naetle and I could defeat Darkrai."

* * *

Eletek's eyes widened as he read the passage of the book.

"Do you get what I'm saying, Tek?!" Benisharpha excitedly babbled.

"There - there's no way it's us. It's talking about the Shiny Wars, obviously, and we aren't that Fraxure and Electabuzz-"

"That's what I thought too, until earlier this morning!" She explained. "I was training here as usual when I saw a tree appear out of nowhere, like magic! It has to be a sign from Arceus - it's going to happen today!"

"But there's no demon war!" Eletek decided to point out the obvious.

"So?!" went Benisharpha's astute reply. Before Eletek could point out more of the holes in her argument, she was already off again.

"You - you can't be serious!"

Eletek ran back the way he came, trying to catch up to her. Strangely, she ran in a winding path and kept up pace longer. She was more athletic than he was, after all.

Eventually, though, they made it to the tree. She was bouncing back and forth as she waited for Eletek.

"... Sharfa, wait up!" Eletek leaned on the side of the tree, relaxing for a second as he tried to collect his wits. "Are you sure this is the best option?"

Wasn't there a better way to do all of this - like doing _nothing_!

She stared at him. "Tek, do you understand what's happening? They're recruiting for the army! We're finally fighting against those awful… demons! They'll need everyone to fight, Tek." She punched the tree in trembling, nervous excitement. "This is our chance to secure our future! Onwards, Tek, to Siemna Town!" She made a mad dash to the north, back to Siemna Town.

Eletek panicked. "Sharfa, wait up!" She was crazy - who knows what she was going to do? He ran to the north, tailing her closely.

Then, as they ran over the crest of the hill, he just realized what had happened.

She looked back at him, slowing down. "I - I can't believe it!" she babbled. "Everything felt so natural to say - even though there's no demon war or any of that!"

"Figures you would memorize the speech." Despite his proclamation, Eletek was also astounded at how easy the words came out his mouth.

It was almost as if… he was born to say those words, at the tree.

"... now what?"

"Now we check out the tree," she boldly proclaimed. "Trees don't appear out of nowhere - I want to see if it's still there. It might have divine properties or something!"

Then, before Eletek could say anything, she ran back in the direction of the tree.

"Sharfa… you're insane," Eletek finally managed to get out, before following her again.

As they came over the crest of the hill, they froze.

The tree was gone - and in its place was a pair of Pokémon. An Empoleon and a Torterra, to be more precise.

The two fully evolved Pokémon turned to the two of them, waving. "Why, hello there."

"... did you happen to see the tree that…" She looked at the tree on the back of the Torterra. "Hold on…"

"You punch hard," the Torterra praised. "It took a lot of my effort not to flinch."

"... who are you…?" Eletek asked, looking at the two sharply.

"Take a guess - we're in that textbook." The Empoleon said.

It took a second for it to click in.

Then Benisharpha squealed, rushing toward the two. "I - I can't believe it! Naetle - Sky?!"

The Empoleon rubbed his back. "Didn't take you very long, did it?"

Eletek gaped. "I - buwuh - huh?!"

"Time travel," Naetle explained, taking a seat. "We decided to look at the future - though, we're here specifically to engineer that Dimensional Scream."

"Wait, so-"

"Don't ask me how it works," Sky waved a flipper. "I've had it for the entirety of my life, but my guess as to how it and time generally work is only slightly better than yours."

"How - how was it like?! Facing the Ahriman?!" Benisharfa had stars in her eyes as she pranced around on Naetle's shell. "Was it awesome? What's it like being a hero? How do-"

A couple of vines shot out from Naetle's shell, before wrapping themselves around her waist. Eletek only barely managed to think of shouting a warning, before Naetle lifted her into the air.

Then he placed her onto the ground, and Eletek remembered he was dealing with heroes, not villains.

Though, the two of them had frowned

"You… you generally have an idea of what it was like, facing the Ahriman, or Darkrai," Naetle told them. "That year… battling for my life and the safety of the world… it wasn't the most pleasant part of my life."

Benisharpha blushed. "Sorry, it's just that… you guys are heroes!"

Naetle sighed. "Yeah, I suppose we are."

"We didn't contribute much to the events in the book - we took part here and there, but I was only important enough to get one section for myself - you know the one." The two of them nodded.

"That, and you didn't like Neitra's methods. That _was_ the only way I could get first-person information, you know."

A sophisticated voice rang out from behind the two of them. They turned to find an Espeon, with a strange white Pokémon they'd never seen before on her back.

Sky sighed. "Glacia, even if I did like it, there's no other section that Naetle wouldn't have been able to handle better. I'm just not that important."

Then Benisharpha rushed forward, before falling at Glacia's feet.

"I'm - I'm not worthy!" She exclaimed. Eletek sighed in embarrassment.

Glacia frowned, her eyes glowing. "Hm… Benisharpha? I'm just going to call you Sharfa, okay?"

She nodded. "Of course!"

"Sharfa, I'm not a hero."

…

"Huh?"

"Sit down," Glacia commanded, sitting down and letting the strange white Pokémon off her. That Pokémon didn't do anything but study the two of them. For some strange reason, Eletek felt a strange force judging him.

"Arci, don't do that, they don't like it. Use your intellect instead of your powers," Glacia off-handedly said to him. Arci didn't say anything, but Eletek felt the strange judging presence go away.

Glacia turned back to Benisharpha. "Sharfa, tell me honestly - what was so heroic about what I did?"

Benisharpha scratched her head. "Huh?"

"Why were my deeds so heroic, Sharfa?"

Benisharpha stood there for a second.

"I'll wait for you to come up with an answer." She turned to Eletek. "Any questions?"

"... a couple, yeah," he admitted. "So… why are you here?"

Glacia smirked. "Curiosity, for the most part. I wanted to see what the future was like - what developments in technology Naixe had managed to create over the last hundred years or so. That, and it was my vacation time."

"Vacation time?"

Glacia swished her forked tail. "I'm a schoolteacher - one of the first ones in our new Naixe. The richest Pokémon are practically handing over their fortunes to get me to teach their brats. I needed a break from that, so here we are."

"Madam Glacia?" The white quadruped - Arci - finally stated in a monotone. "May I leave for the city?"

Glacia considered it for a second, before nodding. "Yes - though, stay by Shift, if at all possible. He'll keep you safe."

Then a small black portal appeared underneath Arci's legs. Within a second, he dropped through.

Eletek stared, his mind whirring.

"M-Merla?" He finally managed to get out.

"She doesn't have a job, so to speak. I've told her to find something worthwhile to do with her life, and this is what she considers adequate." Glacia sighed. "She _really_ couldn't find anything else." Despite that, there was a small smile on her face.

"Where is she?" Eletek looked around, trying to find her - she had to be close by. But Glacia shook her head.

"She's in the Distortion World. She and Giratina have nice chats, now and again."

".. can I see her?" Eletek asked hopefully.

Glacia didn't respond. Instead, a gigantic black portal appeared next to her. There were several booms after that, and a mammoth of a Pokémon walked out.

Eletek gaped.

The gigantic Giratina Drone - no, it had to be Giratina himself - looked at him.

"Hello."

The booming female voice nearly knocked Eletek back.

Then, with several large steps, Merla walked back into the portal, and out of sight.

Glacia sighed. "Her ability to carry on conversations has atrophied," Glacia noted. "She only talks with her close friends - namely, us." Glacia gestured to all of them with her tail. "It's her choice, though."

Eletek was silent for a second. Then, voice trembling, he spoke. "I - I thought she was normal-sized."

"Correct."

"... but that-"

"She _was_ normal-sized. Then she grew." Glacia explained simply.

"Huh?"

"Over the past few decades, there have been a lot of experiments with Drones, after the knowledge of them became widely known. A few things are now known - for instance, Legendaries are the only ones able to make efficient Drones, as ones made by normal Pokémon are simply too weak to function."

Eletek nodded. "Okay, but the _size_?"

"Yes, that. Giratina's DNA encodes for a massive size, and massive power to support that. For a decade or so, Merla was the most ravenous Pokémon in the world - she outstripped Snorlax easily. But, when that growth spurt ended… she was the same size and strength as Giratina. Functionally, a Legendary."

"But - how? Why _her?_ Didn't Giratina have other Drones - did they grow as much?"

"Studying hard, haven't you?"

"Sharfa's insistent," Eletek mumbled, blushing. He took a look at her - she was still mulling over what Glacia had asked her.

"To answer your question, yes, he did - and the key difference between the two is that Merla had a soul. The other Drones were practically living corpses - there was no need for them to grow. Merla, on the other hand, is well and truly alive, and that's what caused her to grow."

Eletek slowly nodded.

"Arci is another Drone. Now, tell me, Eletek, who is he a Drone of?"

Eletek definitely could see Glacia as a teacher. Already, his mind was at work, trying to piece together.

Then, ten seconds later, he remembered what was around Arci's waist - that wheel. His brain practically fried itself as he realized the implications.

"Arceus, yes." Glacia read his thoughts - literally. "And not in terms of expression - he will grow to be a full Arceus."

"T-t-t-"

"Arceus was curious. He wanted to see if he could create something on his level. He succeeded - though, I shudder to think of how much food Arci will need during his growth spurt. Arci's a good kid, though."

"And Arceus is not the only one. When the other Legendaries realized they could have kids, well… currently, I'm teaching a Dialga Drone, a Mewtwo Drone (he's hard to deal with) and a Necrozma Drone. Nicki, by the way, is easily the loudest girl I've ever met."

"Oh, and you can come out, now."

There was a rush of air behind them, and Eletek turned to face two more Pokémon. A shadowy figure, with two orange pinpricks for eyes, faced him - and a tiny version too.

It didn't take too long for Eletek to figure out who it was.

"You're Tom, aren't you?"

It was at this point that Eletek had finally guessed wrong - and he could tell, from the wounded looks everyone was giving him. Naetle looked away, unable to meet Eletek's eyes. Sky closed his eyes in sorrow. The Marshadow's eyes were downcast.

And Glacia… her eyes went stony and hard.

"... I'm sorry," Eletek apologized. "Are - are you Shade?"

Shade nodded. "Yes - and this is my child, Tommy." He bumped Tommy's back. Tommy waved, giving Eletek a gummy smile. "He's named after… you know who."

"... what happened to him?" Eletek asked.

No one answered him.

Then Glacia spoke. "If at all possible, I'd like to answer that question last of all."

"Alright," Eletek nodded. "Then… who else is here?"

"In this little reunion trip through time?

"Well, Vinia is off surveying the hospital - she wants to see if they've developed new procedures she can borrow back in our time. She _is_ the head doctor of the main hospital, after all.

"Shift is busy touring the cities. It took a few years, but he's recovered completely from what Neitra did to him. It helped that Neitra has access to all of the memories he's taken. It took a bit of retraining, but he's back to normal. Arci is with him right now.

"Kavol has gone off to study modern technology. He's planning to jumpstart technological development again, reverse-engineering any machines he comes across and incorporating it into our technology. Hopefully, that'll cause this timeline to have better technologies available, through a ripple effect.

"And… not that many other people. Strawberry's here - she ran away from her brother, once he started to go insane due to paranoia. He's back to normal thanks to Vinia, though not in good condition. He doesn't like interacting with us anymore, out of guilt and shame or anger, no one can tell."

"Um… thank you," Eletek turned to Sky. "But why did you come _here_ specifically?"

"To create the circumstances for my Dimensional Scream. After this, we're going to go back to when I first appeared on Naixe, to have my younger self use the Dimensional Scream on Naetle. Then he'll get the vision, and our job will be done. Other than that, we wanted to thank you."

"Thank me?"

"Your vision helped me find my way to Siemna Town. While it was a trap, it still helped me get closer to Naetle. Thanks for that."

"Oh… okay."

Then a thought occurred to Eletek. "Say… there was a question in the ending dialogue, one that Merla asked. About why the Ahriman - sorry, Zoroas (Zoroas Major?)-"

"It's confusing for us too, at points."

"Yeah. About why he was in Glacia, and what the origin of the Miasma is."

Sky laughed. "Oh, that? We already figured it out. It took a while, but when I used the Dimensional Scream on Glacia, the vision came to me."

"... so what is it?"

"After the Temporal Explosion that sent Naetle and I careening into the future, Zoroas was still around - though much weaker. He wasn't sent to the future like everyone else there was. Instead, he kept on jumping bodies, until he found his way into an Eevee."

"Glacia?!"

Glacia smacked the top of Eletek's head. "No! Use your head, will you?!"

"But I can't talk telepathically."

…

Glacia laughed, her eyes lightening. "Using my book against me? Clever."

"No - instead, he tried to possess Hoopa. Get another Legendary, you know?"

"Then…"

"Then Glacia's ancestor protected Hoopa and was possessed instead. Hoopa took the chance to use a much harder variant of mental blocks to lock Zoroas's spirit inside the Eevee, preventing him from getting out or doing anything."

"Then that Eevee had kids. Then grandkids. And Zoroas, after the ancestor died, was passed onto them, in a sort of cursed inheritance. Every child was forced to partially bear the seal, which wouldn't break until every bearer died."

"And that meant me and my family," Glacia said. "There are two differences we had from our ancestors. First, everyone except me was killed in the revolution - even my uncle Mentali, who Lord Black betrayed. Second, the strength of the seal degraded over time, meaning that my seal was the weakest.

"The result? After millennia of holding together, the seal finally broke for me - not too much, just enough for him to send me into dreams, almost get me killed twice, then send me forward in time with his space-time powers."

"And when Necrozma decided to wake him up… well, you know what happened."

Eletek nodded. "O-Okay? And the Miasma?"

Shade took this one. "Remnants of a ruptured soul - though Zoroas and Tom were the only ones able to make it. The Ahriman couldn't die, even then, and when he was locked into place by the seal, he couldn't escape. As a result, he exploded, morphing into the quasi-sentient Miasma."

"That explains him… but what about Tom?"

"His soul was already ruptured, from the time he was split from Zoroas. Nowhere near enough, considering the smaller size of the rupture, but it was still a rupture, and so the Corona was born."

"Ah."

…

"I'm still confused. This just doesn't seem coherent or logical."

Glacia swished her tail again. "Don't try to think about it too hard," she advised. "We were barely able to piece it all together as it is - it might not even be accurate."

…

"I'm sorry," Eletek apologized. "But no matter how hard I try, I can't help but wonder what happened to Tom."

Glacia didn't say anything. Then she returned her gaze to Benisharpha.

"Have you figured it out, Sharfa?" She gently asked. "Why I'm not a hero?"

She shook her head. "N-No. I just… everything you guys did was so heroic and I can't figure out which deed to pick."

"How about a non-heroic thing. I insulted Alice."

The clearing they were in went quiet.

"I had debated whether to put that in the Book or not… but before the last Breaking, I snapped at Alice for not believing in me. I insulted Tom, time and time again. I've insulted the Temporalists - which I don't regret in my heart, but seeing the ghettos and such in this time made me realize it was a mistake to inundate the textbook with the racism. It ruined their destiny, who knows for how long?"

Every word was a blow to Benisharpha.

"The 'heroic' things we did… most people would have done the same," Glacia admitted. "The most heroic thing I did was purposely falling to the Miasma to barely manage to warn Necrozma. Everything else was motivated by selfish actions."

"Even saving Merla?"

"Even that. That was more out of curiosity than anything else - though I have to admit it was one of the actions with the best outcomes." Glacia frowned. "I didn't even _try_ to be a hero - most of my concerns were with returning home. Everything else was just friendship, good luck, and teamwork."

"That's… I…"

"Thank you for the compliment, Sharfa," Glacia smiled hollowly. "But your flattery will never be true - not since, when I wanted to be a hero, I failed to be one. Not when it mattered the most."

"... Tom?" she asked.

"Merla?" Glacia instead called.

Another black portal appeared out of the ground.

"You know what to give them.

A book - a textbook - fell out of the portal and landed by their feet.

"Look at the end of this book," Glacia commanded. "Then you'll find the answers you seek."

Glacia turned to them all.

"It's high time we left. Tommy still has his playdate with Petal, and I don't want to leave Flower waiting. Let's return to the past."

The five time-travelers huddled up. Before Benisharpha or Eletek could say anything, they fell into a black portal.

They simply stood there, for a couple of minutes.

"... they're gone," Benisharpha said, half in a trance.

"You know… it still feels like a dream," Eletek finally said. "To meet them, and… Sharfa?"

Benisharpha had opened the book that the heroes - no, the time travelers - had given them. She leafed through the book quickly, studying it.

"Sharfa, what are you doing?"

She didn't answer and instead continued to leaf through the book.

Then, at the very end, past the dialogues between Glacia, Vinia, Merla, and Celebi, Tek saw a new passage - something that wasn't in the original. Something that must have been removed during revision.

Benisharpha placed the book on the ground and started to read.

* * *

…

 _I'm tired… I want all of this to end… I know I won't die anytime soon, but… but…_

 _Why does it hurt so much… to be alone?_

…

… _I'm tired… I think I'll take a nice… long… nap…_

… _please… anyone… help..._

…

…

… _testing… testing… 1 2 3… good, words are appearing. This… I wish there were other people here, so I could talk to you directly… but fate has other plans for me._

 _First of all, sorry, Glacia, for borrowing your body. I don't have that much time - Arceus is pushing hard._

 _If you're confused as to what I'm talking about… well, considering that every other hero has gone through this at some point, it shouldn't take too long to figure out._

 _I'm leaving - forever._

…

 _If you're wondering_ why _… then the answer is simple._

 _The Corona._

 _I've spent the last few months traveling around Naixe, curing every single Inverted Pokémon of the Miasma and destroying any ambient Miasma I can find. It took a while, but with everyone's help, I managed to get rid of the Miasma completely. None of it is left. Every other legacy the Ahriman left will now fade with time, now that Arceus is planning to restart human civilization._

 _But then there's the matter of me. Let me put it succinctly._

 _Arceus is afraid. And I am too._

 _The Corona… over the past few months, I've become familiar with it and its power. It's both a part of me, and it isn't. Because of Shade's biology, I'm immortal, so there's no way I can die of disease or old age or starvation or anything like that. And with the Corona, the only way someone can 'kill' me is in my sleep._

 _Arceus has already tried._

 _And I didn't die._

 _It didn't take too long to figure out I'm as immortal as the Ahriman was - and I had no counterpart to burn my soul alive. I didn't split when I died - I knew that wouldn't happen, since it wasn't the initial killing that separated me and the Ahriman in the first place._

 _Regardless, Arceus and I agree that something has to happen. The Corona doesn't necessarily make someone good - it just makes them my perfect subject. Willing to obey every order - no,_ wanting _to obey every order, in love of me, holding all of my morals… they become good people only because I like good people more than I like bad people._

 _The Miasma and the Corona are two sides of the same coin. The only real difference between the two is the master in control._

 _So, if I_ ever _decide to change my mind… if I ever decide I want to become a ruler in more than just name… nobody will be able to stop me. I'll come back, again and again until I'm simply another Ahriman._

 _I have higher faith in myself… but then fate works in strange ways, doesn't it? There's always a chance, and any chance is too much._

 _So, Arceus and I have decided, together, to send me to Azathoth._

…

 _Oh, right, you have no idea about Azathoth._

 _Azathoth (no relation to Lovecraft) is the cause of all this - of everything. He had no other input other than starting the chain reaction. He's watched the chain of events unfold for his entertainment._

 _I don't come from this world… this universe… this_ multiverse _… it's all a fake, created by Azathoth for his own amusement. He's higher than Arceus on the hierarchy of power._

 _One day… when both the Ahriman and I were Zoroas… Azathoth killed us and summoned our soul. He split Zoroas into me and the Ahriman so that we could compete against each other._

 _Then he gave us a task - take over the multiverse, or at least engineer it so that the other couldn't take it over. He made our souls vulnerable only to each other so that the contest wouldn't end until a victor had been decided._

 _That victor eventually being me._

 _He then reincarnated us into a single body. As you already know, only one soul can control a body at once - and the Ahriman took the opportunity, shoving me to the back of the body, just like I did with Tim. He forced me to witness the atrocities he committed. Azathoth warping one of our souls to make the game more interesting. He forced me to absorb all the pain for him._

 _When he died, we separated. The Miasma and the Corona - something I hadn't named until Vinia gave me the idea - battled in our body, and when we separated, it did too. Now that we were apart, it could manifest - though, it couldn't really do anything. There was only an iota of it, so we didn't even know it existed._

…

 _If you're wondering how I know all this… I always knew it. I never forgot. I never had amnesia - it was never more than a convenient lie to stop people from asking me where I came from. I manipulated the memories I gave to Neitra, turning into a Beheeyem to do so. I made it so the chapters you wrote made it seem like I had amnesia. I managed to keep up the ruse - though, I slipped up once by mentioning zombies or something._

 _I don't know why Necrozma and Giratina allowed me to live. I would have probably killed myself, just in case I was working with the Ahriman… no, I wouldn't._

 _But they have mercy too, then._

…

 _Arceus is sending me into exile. The game, the contest… is already over - the Ahriman is dead, so the victor is me. There's no point in waiting - it'll simply be a matter of time before the eventual heat-death of the universe, where I become the eventual ruler by being the sole inhabitant._

 _After this message, Arceus will send me away. To my old world, to nonexistence… who knows? The game is over, the conflict resolved._

…

 _The parting hurts… but thank you._

 _Thank you for everything._

 _Thank you, Glacia, for your relentless drive._

 _Thank you, Merla, for your unwavering loyalty._

 _Thank you, Vinia, for your kindness._

 _Thank you, Naetle, for leading us forward when we were lost._

…

 _I could give thanks all day, to everyone, but Arceus is pushing me to end it. I think I won't be able to delay any longer._

 _I don't want to leave - the Corona is proof enough of that. Right now, it's taking all I can to stop it from taking over Arceus, to protect either me or itself I don't know._

 _Shade, thanks for letting me borrow your body. I hope you have a good immortal life - make sure to take care of them all for me, okay?_

 _I'll be stopping the recording here. For all the readers of this book… I hope I was entertaining._

…

 _Chapter 26: END._

* * *

Eletek and Benisharpha read the last words on the last page with trembling hearts. All the joy… all the happiness they had upon meeting their idols… gone in the blink of an eye.

Deep within them, deep within every Pokémon in the world… an old power, separated from its master, cried out in remembrance.

* * *

Tom and Azathoth faced each other.

"So… I've won the game, haven't I?" Tom said listlessly, Azathoth summoning him after his banishment from the world of Pokémon.

Azathoth nodded. "You know, Mithra-"

"Don't call me that."

"It is what you are, just like Ahriman is."

"You forced me into that role… you split us into two… he accepted his role with passion… and I didn't. I'm not going to be the Mithra. I'm just Tom."

"Fine. Tom, you won - though, I honestly thought you had no chance, not until the very end."

Tom shrugged. "My friends did most of the work for me - I was just there to land the finishing blow. I _didn't_ have any chance - they gave it to me."

"Well, I'm proud… this is so boring, can we just get on with it?"

Tom sighed. "Sure. What happens to me now that I've won the game?"

"You can return to your old world, if you so choose," Azathoth offered. "I can place you where you died, in a new body. You could reconnect with your old friends and family."

"Azathoth, I don't even remember their names. It's been millennia upon millennia since then - I have no desire to return."

"Well, you're not staying here with me," Azathoth said, point-blank. "You're an incredibly awful company."

"I wouldn't stay here even if you forced me to."

"There's nothing you would be able to do, Tom, if I forced you to." Azathoth reminded him. Tom ground his teeth together.

"There are other universes and multiverses - would you like to visit them?"

Tom shook his head. "No, I have no desire to go exploring. I want to return to the Pokémon multiverse - to _my_ multiverse."

Azathoth laughed. "Arceus will just send you back here. What's the point?"

"Arceus will never have to know. No one will."

"Elaborate."

"First, you sever my connection to the Corona. Then, erase all of my memories and reincarnate me into a new body - one that Arceus won't suspect, one close to my friends."

Azathoth thought about that.

"Then, finally… leave my soul to be vulnerable again, so that when I wish to die, I can die. I want to spend the rest of my life with my friends… and no more."

"... alright. Your story is over, so if that's what you want, that's what you get. I won't be dealing with that multiverse any more, so it's no skin off my back." Azathoth snapped translucent fingers several times, and the changes were underway.

Tom began to glow.

"Enjoy your ending… hero."

* * *

"Come on, Tommy!" Petal raced ahead of Tommy, making sure that she wouldn't be caught. Flower smiled indulgently, playing tag herself.

Next to them, Shade and Glacia rested, enjoying the sight. Things had gone poorly, things had gone well, things had changed… and now things were as they were now. It wasn't the best way things could have ended, but it was the way things turned out. And they had worked to the bone to see this, for their entire lives, so they wanted to enjoy it.

And as for Tommy…

… something deep within him smiled.

It looks like he got that game of tag after all.

* * *

 **GOOD ENDING**

 **BAD ENDING**

* * *

 **TRUE ENDING**

* * *

 **So... that's it.**

 **If you have been here from the beginning... sorry for the long, bumpy ride. Let's just say my first PMD fanfic - actually, my first fanfic, period - isn't the best quality. The lore is confusing at best, discontinuous and paradoxical at worst, the characters are egregiously terrible... you get the point.**

 **I've been writing this for what, 1.5 years? 2 years? The idea came to me when I had no access to the internet and was bored - I had just decided to write something in my notebook to pass time. I had tried publishing fanfiction before, but I could never get past more than a couple of pages before I gave up/lost interest.**

 **And that mentality stayed with me for a while. I started writing Chapter 1 in October of 2017 - and it took until February for me to publish it. Now I'm able to pump out a full-length chapter one week after the other.**

 **And you know? While this is a terrible fanfic, my heart was still spasming when writing the conclusion. Somehow, my characters struck a chord in me. It's something else, to give your characters their final lines and final actions.**

 **Thanks to Just-A-Reader0Love, TheEverPresentNocturnos, and my beta for pushing me through to complete the story, even when I had lost all hope in it. Several times, I realized how awful the fic was, and wanted to just put it on indefinite hiatus like two of my other stories. They helped me push through that mentality to deliver this (unsatisfying, but complete) finale.**

 **For the characters, the ending wasn't a perfect ending, nor the worst ending... but it was the ending that they had got, that they brough upon themselves through their actions. And this isn't a quality ending, nor an ending that makes you want to throw up... but it's the ending I felt somewhat appropriate, for the story I spent so much time writing.**

 **Thank you, for everyone who stayed.**

 **And now...**

 **If you're interested...**

 **... soon, I'll be publishing my next PMD fic. Here's a little taste of what it's based off/what I'm ripping off (Hope you like anime:))**

www youtube com / watch ? v= faqmNf_fZlE

 **So if you're interested in that, stay tuned.**

 **Goodbye.**


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